977.2 

B17S 

1958 


. A.  BAKER 


THE    ST.    JOSEPH-KANKAKEE    PORTAGE 

.  cv  o  n  ^ 


XI  E>  R.AR.Y 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 
OF    ILLINOIS 


977.2 

B17s 

1958 


Illinois  Historical  Survey 


THE  ST.  JOSEPH -KANKAKEE 
PORTAGE 


ITS  LOCATION  AND  USE  BY  MARQUETTE,  LA  SALLE 
AND  THE  FRENCH  VOYAGEURS 


BY 

GEORGE  A.  BAKER, 
SECRETARY  OF  THE  SOCIETY. 


SOUTH  BEND,  INDIANA. 
PUBLISHED  BY  THE  SOCIETY. 


NORTHERN  INDIANA  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY. — PUBLICATION  No.  1. 


THE  ST.  JOSEPH -KANKAKEE 
PORTAGE 


ITS  LOCATION  AND  USE  BY  MARQUETTE,  LA  SALLE 
AND  THE  FRENCH  VOYAGEURS 


BY 

GEORGE  A.  BAKER, 
SECRETARY  OF  THE  SOCIETY. 


SOUTH  BEND,  INDIANA. 
PUBLISHED  BY  THE  SOCIETY. 


First  Edition— May  1,  1899 

Second  Edition — June  1,  1929 

Third  Edition— December  10,  1958 


VIEW     ALONG    THE    ST.     JOSEPH-KAN  KAKEE     PORTAGE    PATH,     SHOWING 
THE    DEPTH    TO    WHICH    THE    TRAIL     WAS    WORN. 

Photo  taken  in   1895. 


PORTAGE   LANDING    ON    THE    ST.    JOSEPH    RIVER. 

From  Sketch  by  Paul  Seguin  Bertault,  Paris. 


5<S 

THE  ST.  JOSEPH-KANKAKEE 
PORTAGE 


ITS   LOCATION    AND    USE   BY   MARQUETTE,   LA    SALLE, 
AND  THE   FRENCH   VOYAGEURS. 


By  GEORGE  A.  BAKER. 
Read  before  the  Society,  July  6,  1897. 


.  Shortlv  after  Easter  Sunday,  1675, 

7  /  the  sick  and  disheartened  priest, 

Father  Jacques  Marquette,1  left  the  Indian  village  of  Kaskaskia 
to  return  to  his  beloved  St.  Ignace  by  a  new  route,  which  many 
eminent  authorities  believe  to  have  been  via  the  Kankakee 
River.  In  that  case  it  is  very  probable  that  he  and  his  two  faithful 
attendants,  Pierre  Porteret  and  Jacques,  made  use  of  the  portage 
between  the  Kankakee  and  St.  Joseph  Rivers — a  carrying  place 
of  between  four  and  five  miles.  The  portage  landing  on  the  St. 
Joseph  River2  is  two  and  three-quarters  miles  northwest  of  the 
court  house,  at  South  Bend,  St.  Joseph  County,  Indiana,  and 
the  portage  extends  in  a  southwesterly  course  to  three  small 
ponds  which  were  the  nearest  sources  of  the  Kankakee.  The 
basins  of  these  ponds  are  still  clearly  defined. 

Early  in  December,  1679,  LaSalle  with  Hennepin,  Tonty  and 
others,  journeyed  over  this  portage  on  their  way  to  the  Illinois 
country.  It  seems  very  probable  that  Allouez  used  it  also,  but 
this  is  denied  by  some  authorities. 

The  earliest  mention  of  this  historic  route  is  found  in 
the  writings  of  Father  Louis  Hennepin,  Henry  de  Tonty  and 


1.  Appleton's  Cyclopedia  of  American  Biography;  Subject,  Mar- 

quette. 

2.  River  of  the  Miamis.     The  Miamis  River.     St.  Joseph's  River 

of  the  Lakes.     St.  Joseph's  River.     Big  St.  Joseph  River  of 
Lake  Michigan.     St.  Joseph  River. 

Page  5 


THE    ST.    JOSEPH-KANKAKEE    PORTAGE 

Rene  Robert  Cavelier,  Sieur  de  LaSalle,1  who  first  made  use  of  it 
as  stated  above  in  December,  1679.  We  are  led  to  believe,  how- 
ever, that  Louis  Jolliet,  companion  of  Marquette  and  co-discoverer 
of  the  Mississippi,  knew  of  this  portage  as  early  as  1673. 

In  the  early  days  the  region  in  the  vicinity  of  the  portage, 
the  valleys  of  the  St.  Joseph  and  the  Kankakee,  abounded  in  a 
great  variety  of  fur-bearing  animals.  It  was  well  known  among 
the  Indian  tribes  on  account  of  its  excellence  as  a  hunting  ground. 
Antoine  de  la  Mothe  Cadillac  writing  of  the  lower  Peninsula  of 
Michigan  in  1701,  says:  "There  are  so  many  vast  prairies  dotted 
with  woods,  thickets  and  vines  where  the  waters  of  the  streams 
keep  the  shores  always  green  and  the  reaper  has  left  unmown  the 
luxuriant  grasses  which  fatten  buffaloes  of  enormous  size."  The 
plain  along  the  eastern  bank  of  the  St.  Joseph  river  south  of 
Niles,  Michigan,  was  a  noted  buffalo  resort  known  to  the  French 
as  "Pare  aux  vaches"  ;  and  to  the  Indians  as  "The  cow-pasture," 
or  "cow-pens."  Further  up  the  river  the  field  west  and  south 
of  the  portage  landing,  was  called  at  the  time  of  the  visit  of 
Charlevoix  in  1721,  "La  Prairie  de  Tete  la  Boeuf"  (Buffalo  Head 
Prairie). 

All  this  region  was  a  paradise  for  the  Indian.  A  memoir* 
prepared  in  1718,  for  the  French  Government  describes  particu- 
larly the  valley  of  the  St.  Joseph  as  follows:  "Tis  a  spot  the  best 
adapted  of  any  to  be  seen  for  purposes  of  living.  There  are  phea- 
sants as  in  France;  quails  and  paroquets;3  the  finest  vines  in  the 
world  which  produce  a  vast  quantity  of  very  excellent  grapes. 
It  is  the  richest  district  in  all  the  country."  J.  Fenimore  Cooper, 
in  his  work,  "The  Bee-Hunter,"4  calls  the  St.  Joseph  country  or 
along  the  banks  of  the  stream  of  that  name,  "A  region  that  almost 

1.  Rene  Robert  Cavelier,  Sieur  de  La  Salle,  was  born  at  Rouen, 

and  his  baptismal  entry  reads.  "The  22nd,  November  1643, 
was  baptized  Robert  Cavelier,  son  of  the  Honorable  Jean 
Cavelier  and  Catherine  Geest."  Parkman,  Gravier  and 
Margray  traced  the  surname  of  de  La  Salle  to  an  estate  in 
the  neighborhood  of  Rouen,  at  one  time  possessed  by  the 
Cavelier  family.  The  Christian  name  Rene  cannot  be  ac- 
counted for  although  it  might  perhaps  be  the  name  chosen 
at  his  confirmation,  as  is  customary  in  the  church  of  Rome. 

2.  Paris  Documents  published  in   Colonial  History  of  the  State 

of  New  York;  Vol.  9;  Page  890. 

3.  "Paroquet" — Carolina    Paroquet.     Prof.    Amos   W.    Butler,    in 

his  work,  Birds  of  Indiana,  Indiana  Geological  Report,  1897; 
Page  819;  says:  "This  beautiful  little  parrot  was  formerly 
found  throughout  Indiana.  It  was  last  reported  from  Knox 
County  in  1859.  It  is  now  almost  extinct  in  the  United 
States,  being  at  present  pnly  found  in  small  numbers  in 
Florida  and  in  a  few  favorable  locations  in  north-east  Texas 
and  Indian  Territory. 

4.  Oak  Openings,  or  The  Bee-Hunter. 

Page  6 


THE    ST.    JOSEPH-KANKAKEE   PORTAGE 

merits  the  lofty  appellation  of  the  Garden  of  America."  Here 
with  the  buffalo  were  found  the  bear,  the  elk,  the  dear,  the 
beaver,  the  otter,  the  marten,  the  raccoon,  the  mink,  the  muskrat, 
the  opossum,  the  wild-cat,  the  lynx,  the  wolf  and  the  fox.1 

"For  a  century  and  a  half  fur  was  king."  Here  the  coureurs 
de  bois2  carried  on  their  trade3  with  great  success.  The  rapidity 
with  which  they  penetrated  the  forest  recesses  of  this  western 
country  is  among  the  wonders  of  history.  No  doubt  it  was  from 
one  of  these  men  or  from  the  Indians  that  Jolliet  obtained  his 
knowledge  of  the  St.  Joseph  river,  and  without  ever  seeing  it, 
placed  it  on  his  map  of  1674. 

These  hardy  sons  of  France,  actuated  only  by  the  love  of  ad- 
venture and  gain,  seldom  kept  records  even  when  capable  of  doing 
so.  However  it  does  seem  very  probable  that  the  stories  told  by 
these  adventurous  traders  returning  from  their  various  expedi- 


From  Jolliet's  Map  1674. 


1.  Remains  of  all  these   fur-bearing  animals  have   been   found 

near  the  site  of  Fort  St.  Joseph,  and  are  now  in  the  collect- 
ion of  the  Northern  Indiana  Historical  Society. 

2.  The  beginning  of  the  XVII  century  was  remarkable  for   an 

exodus  to  the  western  countries  generally.  In  spite  of  the 
prohibition  decreed  by  the  government,  these  unlicensed 
commercial  travelers  or  peddlers  known  as  coureurs  de 
bois,  engages,  voyageurs,  peltry  men  and  beaver  men,  were 
carrying  on  the  business  of  exchange  with  the  Indians  in 
the  remote  regions  in  the  heart  of  the  forest,  on  the  lakes  and 
rivers.  In  1681,  these  traders  had  become  so  numerous 
that  the  King  concluded  to  grant  them  a  general  amnesty 
without  reserve.  Few  returned  despite  this  appeal.  Ac- 
cording to  M.  de  Denonville,  not  only  did  these  coureurs  de 
bois  depopulate  the  country  of  its  fittest  sons;  but  they 
themselves  soon  became  intractable,  undisciplined  and  li- 
centious, demoralizing  the  Indians  and  bringing  up  their 
own  children  like  those  of  the  latter." — Desire  Girouard; 
"Lake  St.  Louis."  Page  213. 

3.  The  articles  of  merchandise  used  by  the  French  traders  in 

carrying  on  the  fur-trade,  were  chiefly  coarse  blue  and  red 
cloth,  fine  scarlet,  guns,  powder,  balls,  knives,  hatchets, 
traps,  kettles,  hoes,  blankets,  coarse  cottons,  ribbons,  beads, 
vermilion,  tobacco  and  spirituous  liquor. 

Page  7 


THE    ST.    JOSEPH-KANKAKEE   PORTAGE 

tions  to  this  rich  country,  would  soon  become  general  property 
throughout  the  settlements  along  the  St.  Lawrence  river.  There 
is  every  reason  to  think  that  they  knew  the  valleys  of  the  St.  Jo- 
seph and  the  Kankakee  far  better  than  their  native  land,  and 
were  acquainted  with  most  of  the  trails  leading  to  the  different 
Indian  villages  as  well  as  the  portage,  the  great  highway  to  the 
Kankakee. 

The  learned  Bishop  Brute  intimates,  and  I  think  rightly,  that 
these  adventurers  had  ascended  and  descended  the  St.  Joseph 
river  and  visited  the  Indian  villages  on  the  Kankakee  before  Mar- 
quette  founded  the  mission  at  Kaskaskia  on  the  Illinois.  Certain 
it  is  that  these  glowing  descriptions  of  this  western  country  by 
the  coureurs  de  bois,  returning  to  Montreal,  and  from  the  In- 
dians, and  from  the  report  made  by  Jolliet  to  Frontenac,  the  gov- 
ernor-general who  was  most  favorable  to  LaSalle's  enterprise,  that 
impelled  him  to  undertake  his  great  expedition  to  plant  the  fleur 
de  Us  in  the  Illinois  country  and  along  the  Colbert  (Mississippi) 
river.  This  country  afterwards  named  Louisiana1  in  honor  of 
the  Grand  Monarque,  Louis  XIV. 

Reynolds,  in  his  Pioneer  History  of  Illinois,  says:  "Mar- 
quette  and  Jolliet  on  their  return,  made  out  such  a  glowing  re- 
port that  it  set  all  Canada  on  fire  and  also  swept  over  France  like 
a  tornado.  The  French,  always  excitable,  caught  the  mania  and 
became  crazy  to  see  and  settle  in  the  West.  This  rage  for  western 
enterprise  reached  LaSalle  and  bound  him  in  its  folds  during  the 
remainder  of  his  life." 

That  the  region  of  the  portage  was  for  centuries  the  home  of 
the  Indian,  is  evidenced  by  the  thousands  of  imperishable  relics* 
of  their  handicraft  found  at  the  present  time  throughout  the  val- 
ley of  the  St.  Joseph  and  by  hundreds  of  earthworks  along  the 
Kankakee  and  the  small  streams  tributary  to  it.  It  is  not  hard 
for  the  student  to  believe  that  man  in  this  region  was  coeval  with 

1.  It  is  said  by  Charlevoix  that  the  name  of  Louisiana  was  given 

by  La  Salle,  who  descended  the  Mississippi  in  the  year  1682: 
but  it  is  doubtful  whether  it  can  be  found  in  any  printed 
work  before  Hennepin's  Description  de  la  Louisiane,  print- 
ed at  Paris,  1683.  This  contains  a  dedication  to  Louis  XIV, 
adulatory  in  the  extreme;  and  it  is  believed  the  name  was 
given  for  the  same  end.  In  this  work,  the  Mississippi  is 
called  the  Colbert  river,  after  the  King's  great  minister;  and 
the  name  Seignelay  to  the  Illinois  and  Kankakee  after  Col- 
bert's son  the  Marquis  de  Seignelay,  who  had  succeeded  his 
father  as  Minister  to  the  Colonies. 

2.  See   collections   of   Chas.   H.   Bartlett,  Ryell   T.    Miller,   Basil 

Rupel,  William  B.  Stover,  George  A.  Baker,  Chas.  Schuell 
and  Dr.  Hugh  T.  Montgomery,  of  South  Bend,  Indiana. 

Page  8 


VIEW    OF    PORTAGE    TRAIL    LOOKING     SOUTH-WEST    FROM    ST.     JOSEPH     RIVER. 

From  photograph  by  McDonald,  South   Bend. 


THE    ST.    JOSEPH-KANKAKEE   PORTAGE 


the  close  of  the  Glacial  epoch  and  contemporary  with  the  masto- 
don,1 the  great  elk  and  the  giant  beaver.2 

It  was  probably  after  the  final  advance  and  during  the  with- 
drawal of  the  great  Saginaw  glacier,  that  the  water-shed  which 
causes  the  peculiar  drainage  of  our  immediate  vicinity  was  estab- 
lished. It  was  across  this  plateau,  that  man  in  the  early  times 
made  the  portage  from  the  waters  that  flowed  into  the  St.  Law- 
rence to  the  waters  that  flowed  into  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  which 
in  the  later  days  was  used  by  the  Indian,  the  explorers,  the  mis- 
sionaries and  the  coureurs  de  bois.  That  a  portage  or  carrying 
place  which  was  the  shortest  and  most  convenient  way  would 
have  been  known  to  the  Indian  guides  and  have  remained  in  use 
down  to  the  advent  of  the  permanent  white  settlers,  is,  I  think, 


JKICJffGAK 


INDIAHA. 


LOCATION    OF    ST.    JOSEPH-KANKAKEE    PCRTAGE. 


1.  LeConte,  in  his  Elements  of  Geology,  says  that  the  Mastodon 

roamed  in  herds  over  North  America  from  the  Gulf  of  Mex- 
ico to  the  Arctic  regions.  Many  very  perfect  skeletons  of 
the  Mastodon  have  been  obtained  from  marshes  in  New 
York,  New  Jersey,  Indiana  and  Missouri.  A  splendid  speci- 
men was  found  a  few  years  ago  in  the  bed  of  an  ancient 
marsh  south-east  of  South  Bend.  Many  fragments  of 
skeletons  have  been  found  by  ditchers  in  St.  Joseph  County 
and  are  now  to  be  seen  in  private  collections  in  South  Bend. 

2.  The  giant  beaver,  Castorides  Ohioensis,  was  abundant  in  this 

region.  The  writer  knows  of  two  distinct  specimens;  one 
said  to  be  the  most  perfect  skull  of  this  animal  extant,  was 
found  ten  miles  north  of  South  Bend,  near  Glendora,  Mich- 
igan, and  is  now  the  property  of  the  Museum  of  Natural 
History,  Central  Park,  New  York  City.  The  other,  a  right 
upper  incisor,  was  found  in  the  Kankakee  marsh,  four 
miles  south-west  of  South  Bend,  and  is  now  in  the  collect- 
ion of  the  writer. 

Page  10 


THE   ST.   JOSEPH-KANKAKEE   PORTAGE 

quite  obvious.  Certainly  such  a  route  would  be  the  one  used  by 
the  coureurs  de  bois,  voyageurs  and  others  having  canoes,  heavy 
loads  of  peltries  and  merchandise  to  transport  from  river  to  river 
and  would  be  the  one  of  main  travel.  No  one  will  deny  that 
occasionally  some  lightly  burdened  traveler  or  hunter  might 
make  the  portage  by  a  longer  or  more  circuitous  route.1 

The  Kankakee  region  is  a  great,  flat  valley  with  an  area  of 
over  sixteen  hundred  square  miles,  extending  from  the  eastern 
border  of  the  State  of  Illinois,  northeast  to  the  present  site  of  the 
city  of  South  Bend.  It  is  a  vast  expanse  of  marsh,  bordered  by 
bayous,  with  little  reaches  here  and  there,  connecting  with  in- 
numerable little  pools  and  spatter-dock  ponds,  which  extended 
throughout  the  oozy,  boggy  soil;  and  except  on  occasional  small 
sand  islands  and  dotted  pieces  of  woods  in  favorable  localities 
along  the  banks  of  the  river,  it  is  destitute  of  timber,  affording 
an  unobstructed  view  for  miles. 

Through  this  flowed  the  sinuous  Kankakee,  (the  Theakiki  of 
the  early  French  explorers,)  draining  this  broad  valley  into  the 
Illinois  and  thence  into  the  Mississippi  river. 

Professor  John  L.  Campbell,  Chief  Engineer  of  the  commis- 
sion appointed  by  the  General  Assembly  of  the  State  of  Indiana, 
April  11,  1881,  to  report  on  the  improvement  of  the  Kankakee 
river  states  in  his  memoir  to  the  Governor:  "The broad  valley  of 
the  Kankakee  marsh  is  doubtless  the  result  of  glacial  action.  At 
the  close  of  the  glacial  period  we  may  suppose  that  a  shallow  river 
extended  from  bank  to  bank  of  the  valley.  This  stream  had  an 
average  fall  of  one  and  three-tenths  feet  to  the  mile;  and  a  con- 
sequent velocity  rapid  enough  to  take  up  the  particles  of  fine  sand 
and  carry  them  forward.  The  retardation  along  the  borders 
would  cause  the  deposit  of  the  sand,  and  thereby  make  the  stream 
more  narrow  by  the  formation  of  banks.  The  narrowed  and 
deepened  stream  would  have  an  increased  velocity  and  hence 
other  masses  of  sand  would  be  taken  up  by  the  current  and  car- 
ried forward  to  form  obstructions  in  the  general  direction  of 
flow.  Following  the  lines  of  least  resistance,  the  channel  would 
be  diverted  from  its  original  direction  and  would  change  from 
straight  to  crooked  and  continue  to  change  so  long  as  the  velocity 
was  too  great  for  the  stability  of  the  sand  bed  over  which  the 
river  flows.  By  these  processes  doubtless  the  Kankakee  with  its 
two  thousand  bends  was  formed."  It  was  almost  as  easy  to  as- 
cend as  it  was  to  descend,  so  sluggish  was  its  current.  It  could 
be  navigated  as  easily  as  a  shallow  lake  making  it  a  most  desir- 
able route  for  returning  voyageurs  heavily  laden  with  their  loads 
of  bulky  peltries. 

1.     Via  Chain  Lakes  and  the  Grapevine  Greek. 

Page  11 


THE   ST.   JOSEPH-KANKAKEE   PORTAGE 

The  Kankakee  was  always  a  well  defined  river,  and  though 
crooked  and  shallow  in  many  places,  it  was  plainly  distinguish- 
able from  the  creeks  and  brooks  which  emptied  into  it. 

Mr.  Jacob  Ritter,  Mr.  Robert  G.  Cissne  and  other  well  known 
settlers  of  St.  Joseph  County  state  that  at  certain  seasons  boats 
could  be  easily  launched  north  of  the  main  channel  of  the  Kanka- 
kee thus  shortening  the  portage  by  a  mile  or  more.  I  want  to 
call  particular  attention  to  this  evidence  as  it  harmonizes  with  the 
description  of  the  portage  route  as  given  in  the  writings  of  Hen- 
nepin  and  La  Salle,  who  state  indirectly  that  the  portage  was 
longer  during  low  water  and  shorter  during  high  water. 

The  government  survey  of  St.  Joseph  County,  1828-1830, 
clearly  defines  the  outline  of  the  Kankakee  marsh.  Immediately 
to  the  north  it  marks  the  confines  of  the  semi-wet  territory,  and 
still  further  to  the  north,  the  outline  of  the  dry  prairie,  which  is 
now  known  as  part  of  German  township.  The  township  immedi- 
ately south  of  German  is  Portage,  so  called  because  the  portage 
passed  through  it.  The  dry  prairie  was  surrounded  on  the  west, 
north  and  east  by  the  original  forest  of  white  and  black  oak  and 
hickory.  On  the  south  adjoining  the  semi-wet  territory  were 
scattered  clumps  of  alders  and  willow  bushes  and  shrubs  as 
were  native  to  such  soils.  The  dry  prairie  extended  west  from 
the  portage  landing  on  the  St.  Joseph  river,  two  and  one-half 
miles,  and  two  and  one-quarter  miles  from  the  eastern  verge  of 
the  prairie,  or  to  about  a  line  north  and  south  between  sections 
seven  and  eight,  and  sections  thirty-one  and  thirty-two  north, 
range  two  east.  The  timber  line  bordering  this  dry  prairie  ex- 
tended to  the  north  across  the  Indiana  state  line  into  Michigan. 
On  the  west  and  east  it  extended  south  following  the  west  and 
east  confines  of  the  semi-wet  prairie  and  the  Kankakee  marsh. 
The  nearest  approach  of  the  east  line  of  the  dry  prairie  was  be- 
tween the  north-east  and  south-west  quarter  of  section  twenty- 
seven,  township  thirty-eight,  north  range  two  east;  and  directly 
to  the  west  by  south  of  the  present  residence  of  Mrs.  James 
R.  Miller,  making  the  distance  as  near  as  can  be  calculated,  one 
quarter  of  a  mile  from  the  portage  landing,  as  located  in  William 
Brookfield's  field  notes  of  the  meanderings  of  the  St.  Joseph  river; 
government  survey  run  June  27,  1829. 

Let  us  take  a  bird's  eye  view  from  the  point  where  the  prai- 
rie nearest  approaches  the  St.  Joseph  river  as  it  appeared  in  the 
early  days,  when  the  face  of  nature  still  remained  essentially  the 
same  as  when  Hennepin  and  La  Salle  looked  upon  it.  To  the 
west  and  south  the  dry  prairie,  the  semi-wet  prairie  and  the  vast 
expanse  of  marsh  appeared  as  one  great  plain,  on  the  western 
verge  of  which  we  can  see  the  teepees,  the  smoke  from  numerous 

Page  12 


.  -\ 


VIEW     OF    PORTAG1-:    TRAIL     LOOKING     SOUTH-WEST     FROM     ST.    JOSEPH    RIVER, 
SHOWING    ASCENT    TO    HIGH    GROUND. 

From  photograph  by   McDonald,   South   Bend. 


THE   ST.   JOSEPH-KANKAKEE  PORTAGE 

camp-fires,  and  on  closer  inspection  the  rude  fortifications  of  an 
Indian  village  of  Miamis,  Mascoutins  and  Outagamis.  To  the 
west  of  this  rudely  fortified  village  extended  a  stretch  of  high, 
rolling  and  dry  timber  land.  To  and  beyond  those  beautiful  and 
very  conspicuous  landmarks,  Beaver,  Bass  and  Lower  Chain 
Lakes.  It  may  be  assumed  that  no  careful  writer  accustomed  to 
reciting  a  trip  in  detail  would  have  failed  to  mention  these  lakes, 
covering  over  two  miles  of  that  trip,  and  whose  waters  covered  in 
expanse  over  six  hundred  acres,  had  these  lakes  been  on  his  route. 
The  remains  of  the  fortified  Indian  village  referred  to  above  were 
a  prominent  landmark  with  the  pioneers  who  settled  in  German 
township.  They  were  located  on  the  northwest  quarter  of  section 
thirty-two,  township  thirty-eight,  north  range  two  east,  about  two 
hundred  yards  east  of  the  timber  line,  and  about  two  hundred 
yards  north  of  the  present  Michigan  road  and  just  to  the  north- 
east of  the  old  Jesse  Jennings  residence.  These  earthworks  con- 
sisted of  a  mound  some  eighty  or  ninety  feet  in  diameter  and 
from  four  to  five  feet  in  height.  North  of  this  mound  was  a  cir- 
cular embankment  about  one  hundred  feet  in  diameter.  To  the 
west  from  this  enclosure  was  an  elevated  path  or  walk  leading  to 
a  small  pool  which  had  no  inlet  or  outlet,  being  supplied  with 
water  by  the  springs  and  the  rain.  Within  the  circular  enclosure, 
Mr.  Jacob  Ritter  built  a  cabin  in  1830. 

In  order  that  those  not  acquainted  with  the  appearance  of 
the  country  west  from  the  fortified  village,  I  will  quote  from  the 
field  notes  of  the  Government  survey: 

TOWNSHIP  38  N.  R.  2  E. 
Between  Section  7  and  18,  White  and  Burr  Oak  Timber; 

"       18  and  19,  Burr  Oak; 
"  "       19  and  30,  Burr  Oak  18  and  24  in.  in  diameter 

30  and  31,  Hickory  18  and  22  in.  in  diameter; 
"       19  and  20,  Burr  Oak; 

"       30  and  29,  Burr  Oak; 

31  and  32,  Burr  Oak  and  Hickory. 
Land  rolling  and  dry. 

TOWNSHIP  38  N.  R.  1  E. 

East  boundary  of  Section  24,  Burr  Oak  and  Hickory  18  to  36 
in.  in  diameter. 

East  boundary  of  Section  25,  Burr  Oak  and  Hickory; 

East  boundary  of  Section  36,  W7hite  and  Black  Oak,  22,  24 
and  36  in.  in  diameter. 

Land  rolling  and  dry. 

In  addition  to  this  documentary  evidence,  we  have  the  testi- 
mony of  the  very  settlers  who  cleared  this  forest  land  and  made 
it  fit  for  cultivation,  selecting  it  because  it  was  rich  and  dry  and 

Page  Ik 


THE    ST.    JOSEPH-KANKAKEE   PORTAGE 

because  of  the  timber  which  they  could  use  for  fuel,  rails  and 
lumber. 

The  meanderings  of  the  St.  Joseph  river,  west  side,  run  by 
William  Brookfield,  as  given  in  his  field  notes  are  as  follows: 

Beginning  on  meandering  post,  between  Sections  26  and  27; 

South  72%  degrees;  west  11  chains.  In  Section  27  at  four 
chains,  fifty  links;  a  brook  twelve  links  wide,  course  N.  W. 

South  86  degrees;  west  two  chains,  fifty  links; 

North  45%  degrees;  west  six  chains  and  fifty  links;   . 

North  17  degrees;  west  two  chains  and  fifty  links.  This 
is  the  portage  landing  of  the  Kankakee  on  the  west  bank  of  the 
St.  Joseph  river. 

North  17%   degrees,  east  five  chains  and  fifty  links; 

North  33  degrees;  east  five  chains; 

North  62  degrees;  east  ten  chains; 

North  76  degrees;  east  ten  chains;  at  three  chains  a  brook 
ten  links  wide,  course  east.  (Witter's  Branch). 

North  64  degrees;  east  69  links  to  meander  post  set  between 
Section  26  and  27. 

November  8,  1830,  William  Brookfield1  filed  with  the  Becorder 
of  St.  Joseph  County,  Lathrop  M.  Taylor,  a  plat  of  the  town  of 
St.  Joseph,  extending  south  from  the  landing  as  located  in  his 
field  notes  of  the  meanderings  of  the  St.  Joseph  river.  So  there 
are  to-day  in  existence,  two  distinct  documents  locating  the  exact 
spot  of  the  landing  on  the  St.  Joseph.  The  following  is  a  reduced 
copy  of  the  plat  of  the  town  of  St.  Joseph,  as  drawn  by  Brook- 
field.  It  represents  only  a  portion  of  the  plat;  the  part  pasted  to 
a  leaf  in  Book  "A".  The  remainder  of  the  plat  has  been  torn  out 
and  lost. 


^<^~jf *<"**fc- g^*£f 


~*/r 


PART  OF  BROOKFIELD'S  PI.AT  OF  TOWN  OF  ST.  JOSEPH. 


1.  William  Brookfield,  a  surveyor  in  the  government  employ, 
settled  in  this  part  of  Indiana,  and  built  a  pioneer  home  on 
the  St.  Joseph  river  near  the  portage  landing. 

Page  15 


THE    ST.   JOSEPH-KANKAKEE   PORTAGE 

The  South  Bend  Daily  Tribune  of  January  26,  1895,  speaking 
of  the  recording  of  this  old  plat,  says:  "One  fact  connected  with 
the  recording  of  this  first  town,  is  of  great  importance  as  a  link 
in  history;  for  it  establishes  beyond  question  the  exact  location  of 
the  old  portage  of  the  St.  Joseph  river;  the  spot  where  La  Salle 
landed  in  1679.  In  the  Deed  Record  of  the  County  Recorder's 
office,  Book  A,  and  on  page  1,  is  a  rumpled,  mutilated  plat  of  the 
town  of  St.  Joseph,  as  laid  out  by  William  Brookfield.  All  is  torn 
away  by  frequent  handling,  unfolding  and  folding  of  the  rough 
map,  except  the  part  pasted  to  the  book,  which  contains  the  river 
end;  and  there  may  be  seen  plainly  indicated  by  pen-marks,  at 
the  point  (farthest  west),  where  the  stream  curves  toward  the 
north,  the  portage  of  the  Kankakee.  It  is  in  the  center  of  lot  4." 
The  article  continues  as  follows:  "No  doubt  this  first  surveyor 
of  our  region,  attracted  by  the  striking  beauty  of  this  spot;  know- 
ing its  historic  value  as  the  abiding  place  of  the  Indian  for  cen- 
turies, and  as  the  white  man's  first  landing  place  on  the  soil  of 
St.  Joseph  county,  fondly  dreamed  of  building  here  a  memorial 
in  the  shape  of  a  town  of  a  later-day  civilization."1 

The  portage  landing  located  and  recently  verified  by  a  sur- 
vey made  from  Brookfield's  field  notes,  is  just  to  the  east  of  the 
big  red  barn,  on  the  Miller  property,  south  of  the  residence,  and 
at  the  foot  of  a  beautiful  ravine  declining  gently  from  the  high 
ground.  At  the  water's  edge,  stretching  back  at  least  one  hun- 
dred feet,  is  a  low  sandy  terrace  of  recent  formation.  The  ap- 
proach to  this  picturesque  ravine  is  obscure  and  hard  to  locate 
from  the  river;  the  view  being  obstructed  by  the  forest  trees. 
Many  of  the  original  trees  are  still  standing;  white-oaks,  water- 
elm,  wild  locusts  and  many  red-cedars  the  latter  evidently  being 
the  progeny  of  a  grand  old  cedar,  a  stately  monarch  of  the  port- 
age landing,  which  reaches  to  the  height  of  over  sixty  feet,  with 
a  girth  of  more  than  eight  feet  at  its  base. 

The  red  cedar  (juniperus  virginiana)  is  known  to  be  one  of 
our  slowest  growing  trees;  seldom  reaching  the  size  of  this  giant 
of  its  species;  and  then  only  after  many  centuries  of  its  life.  The 
age  of  this  tree  is  estimated  as  at  least  eight  hundred  years  and 
was  quite  a  tree  at  the  time  of  the  discovery  of  the  continent.  A 
white  oak  of  about  the  same  girth,  which  stands  in  its  vicinity, 
and  whose  growth  would  be  more  rapid,  has  been  estimated  at 
from  four  hundred  to  four  hundred  and  fifty  years  of  age.  The 
trunk  of  the  old  cedar,  which  stands  just  at  the  entrance  to  the 
ravine  and  very  close  to  the  old  water  line,  has  been  covered  by 
the  sand  and  soil  washed  from  above,  to  a  depth  of  between  seven 

1.     This  article  was  written  by  Richard  H.  Lyon,  of  South  Bend, 
Indiana. 

Page  16 


THE    ST.    JOSEPH-KANKAKEE   PORTAGE 


OLD    CEDAK    AT    PORTAGE    LANDING     SHOWING    RUDE    BLAZED    CROSS. 

and  eight  feet.  In  fact  a  number  of 
neighboring  trees  have  been  similarly 
covered.  Recently,  June,  1879,1  the 
soil  around  the  old  cedar  was  re- 
moved and  the  measurements  as  stated 
were  made.  As  the  trunk  was  laid 
bare,  there  was  revealed  something 
that  had  been  lost  to  view  for  a  hun- 
dred years  or  more.  Three  great 
blaze-marks,  forming  a  rude  cross, 
made  by  a  wide-bladed  axe,2  such  as 
were  in  common  use  in  the  French 
colonies.  Here  was  what  we  had 
suspected,  one  of  the  witness  trees 
marked  no  doubt  in  the  early  days  to 
locate  the  portage  landing.  The  blaze- 
marks  are  wide  and  deep  and  show 
great  age.  It  is  well  known  that  the 
red  cedar  is  among  the  slowest  of 
woods  to  decay,  owing  to  the  preserv- 
ative qualities  of  the  resin  it  contains. 


A     SECTION     OF     BLAZED     CEDAR 

TREE,    TAKEN    FROM    LA  SALLE'S 

LANDING     AND     NOW    IN     MUSEUM 

OK    NORTHERN     INDIANA 

HISTORICAL     SOCIETY. 


1.  The  cedar  was  uncovered  by  ().  M.  Knoblock  and  the  writer. 

2.  La  Salle's  party  no  doubt  had  with  them  shipbuilder's  wide- 

bladed  axes.     See  Beckwith's  article:     "Land  of  the  Illini." 

Page  17 


THE    ST.   JOSEPH-KANKAKEE    PORTAGE 

I  need  hardly  say  how  long  ago  these  marks  were  placed  upon 
this  tree.  It  was  certainly  many  decades  ago;  and  it  is  very 
probable  that  this  was  one  of  the  trees  marked  by  Father  Gabriel, 
who  was  at  the  portage  with  Hennepin  and  La  Salle  in  1679,  and 
who  it  is  stated  by  Hennepin,  in  his  "Description  de  la  Louisiane," 
marked  several  trees  so  that  it  would  be  easier  to  find  the  portage. 
William  Brookfield  in  running  his  section  lines  crosses  the 
portage  trail  to  the  Kankakee  and  carefully  notes  its  position  and 
direction  in  two  separate  memoranda  as  follows: 

1.  On   south  boundary  of  Section   33,  Township   38,  North 
Range  2  east;  at  41  chains,  93  links;  a  road,  course  south-west. 

2.  On   random   between   Sections   8   and    17,   Township   37, 
North   Range   2   east;    east   55    chains;    Kankakee   landing   road, 
course  south. 

See  map  on  page  15. 

The  location  of  the  portage  landing  on  the  St.  Joseph  river 
as  has  been  stated  in  this  article,  and  the  course  of  the  trail  indi- 
cated just  above,  is  corroborated  by  such  trust-worthy  wit- 
nesses as  Mr.  Jacob  Ritter,1  who  carried  the  chain  for  Brookfield; 
Mr.  Robert  G.  Cissne,2  who  lived  very  near  the  portage  landing 
in  1831,  and  who  during  that  year  met  a  French  trader,  with  his 
Indian  wife  and  children  at  the  portage  landing  and  hauled  their 
effects  over  this  trail  to  the  landing  on  the  Kankakee  river. 
Brookfield's  location  of  the  portage  landing  is  also  corroborated 
by  Mrs.  James  Hooten,  of  New  Carlisle,  who  lived,  when  a  girl, 

1.  The  venerable  Jacob  Ritter  told  the  writer  in  the  spring  of 

1897,  that  he  helped  William  Brookfield,  the  Government 
Surveyor,  in  his  work.  He  carried  the  chain  for  him.  He 
also  said  that  the  landing  to  the  Kankakee  was  at  the  point 
as  located  in  Brookfield's  notes,  and  the  path  led  to  the 
south-west  to  a  little  branch  of  the  Kankakee.  When  asked 
if  he  knew  of  any  Indian  trail  leading  west  from  the  old 
earthworks  on  the  Jennings  place,  he  said:  "I  built  my 
little  cabin  in  the  circular  enclosure  in  1830;  lived  there 
for  several  years,  and  then  moved  one  mile  north,  where  I 
built  a  more  permanent  residence.  I  am  perfectly  familiar 
with  all  the  country  thereabout;  knew  all  my  neighbors, 
and  I  never  saw  or  heard  of  a  portage  trail  leading  west  to 
Chain  Lakes." 

2.  Mr.   Robert  G.  Cissne,  who  has   resided   on   Portage  Prairie 

since  1831,  said  that  the  portage  landing  was  directly  east 
of  the  residence  of  James  R.  Miller.  "It  was  on  the  west 
bank  of  the  St.  Joseph  river,  at  the  foot  of  a  natural  ravine. 
I  hauled  the  effects  of  a  French  trader  from  this  point  over 
the  old  trail  to  the  landing  on  the  Kankakee  in  1831.  I 
know  nothing  of  any  trail  to  the  Grapevine  or  Chain  Lakes, 
and  do  not  think  there  was  one.  There  was  a  trail  leading 
south  from  Leopold  Pokagon's  village,  on  the  edge  of  Mich- 
igan, by  way  of  the  Military  road  to  Chain  Lakes  and  Sauk 
Town." 

Page  18 


THE    ST.   JOSEPH-KANKAKEE   PORTAGE 

where  the  James  R.  Miller  residence  now  stands;  by  Mr.  George 
Witter;  Mrs.  George  Witter;1  Mr.  Jacob  Gripe;2  Mr.  William  O. 
Jackson  and  by  many  other  well  known  pioneer  settlers. 

A  careful  examination3  of  the  field  notes  of  the  government 
survey  reveal  but  one  portage  trail  from  the  St.  Joseph  river;  and 
no  pioneer  settler  in  St.  Joseph  County  has  knowledge  of  any 
other  one.  Hence  we  are  led  to  believe  that  this  trail,  so  care- 
fully outlined  when  the  country  was  unchanged  and  authenticated 
by  living  witnesses,  the  shortest,  the  most  convenient  at  all 
seasons,  one  with  very  few  obstacles  and  which  harmonizes  in 
every  particular  with  the  descriptions  by  the  earliest  writers, 
was  the  one  used  for  ages  and  the  one  that  was  traversed  by  the 
early  explorers  and  missionaries  and  by  them  made  historic. 

In  the  Jesuit  Relations  de  la  Nouvelle  France  1673-1675 
(original  by  Claude  Dablon  preserved  at  the  College  Ste.  Marie  at 
Montreal),  there  is  an  account  of  Marquette's  death,  but  no  indica- 
tion is  given  of  his  route  from  the  mission  at  Kaskaskia;  the  only 
mention  of  a  route  being  that  the  Indians  who  accompanied  him 
went  beyond  a  portage,  where  they  left  him  on  his  journey. 

Mr.  Justin  Winsor,  librarian  of  Harvard  College,  a  most  care- 
ful investigator  and  the  author  of  a  number  of  standard  histori- 
cal works,  makes  the  following  statement  in  a  letter  as  follows: 

Cambridge,  Mass.,  March  23,  1896; 
Dear  Sir: — 

In  my  Cartier  to  Frontenac,  I  said  that  Marquette  returned 
by  the  portage,  without  indicating  which  one,  because  I  could 
find  no  positive  evidence  to  establish  that  point.  Returning 
traders  and  missionaries  usually  followed  the  eastern  side  of  Lake 
Michigan  because  they  got  some  aid  from  a  north-flowing  shore 
current  on  that  bank  of  the  lake;  and  for  a  like  reason  they 
usually  advanced  towards  the  Illinois  country  by  the  western  side 
of  the  lake.  In  that  case  they  naturally  used,  in  going,  the  Chi- 
cago portage,  and  would  naturally  use,  in  returning,  the  St.  Jo- 

1.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  George  Witter,  residents  of  Portage  Prairie  for 

years,  both  say  they  never  heard  of  a  portage  path  by  way 
of  Chain  Lakes.  If  there  had  been  one,  it  could  not  have 
been  used  to  any  extent.  Mr.  Witter  remembers  distinctly 
the  portage  landing  east  of  James  Miller's  house.  He  had 
washed  sheep  there  many  times  in  an  early  day.  The  path 
leads  south-west  to  the  Knnkakce.  There  was  no  trail  in 
any  direction  leading  from  the  litic  brook  known  as  Witter's 
Branch. 

2.  Mr.  Jacob  Gripe  says  that  when  he  was  a  boy  the  portage  was 

always  referred  to  as  the  Indian  path.  The  deep  gulley  on 
the  Myler  place  was  washed  out  in  the  early  sixties. 

3.  A  careful  examination  of  the  field  notes  of  Brookfield,  was 

made  by  the  Hon.  David  R.  Leeper. 

Page  19 


THE    ST.   JOSEPH-KANKAKEE   PORTAGE 

seph  portage.  Still  they  could  pass  north  by  the  Chicago  port- 
age, and  make  the  circuit  of  the  southern  curve  of  the  lake.  It 
seems  possible  that  Marquette  did  this,  but  probable  that  he 
went  north  by  the  other  portage  (St.  Joseph). 

Very  truly, 

JUSTIN  WINSOR. 
To  Geo.  A.  Baker,  South  Bend,  Ind. 

In  reading  this  statement  we  must  bear  in  mind  that  there 
is  probably  to-day  no  one  who  is  better  informed  regarding  the 
early  history  of  America  than  Mr.  Winsor.  His  opinion  as  to  the 
use  of  our  St.  Joseph  river  portage  by  Marquette  on  his  return 
voyage  in  1675,  is  shared  by  such  eminent  authorities  as  Mr.  John 
Gilmary  Shea;  Hon.  Thomas  Weadock,  author  of  the  Life  of  Mar- 
quette; by  Mr.  Charles  Green,  Secretary  of  the  Michigan  Pio- 
neer and  Historical  Society;  by  Mr.  Edward  G.  Mason,  President 
of  the  Chicago  Historical  Society;  by  Mr.  B.  H.  Clark,  and  by 
many  other  noted  historians. 

Mr.  John  Gilmary  Shea,  in  his  "Discovery  and  Exploration 
of  the  Mississippi  Valley,"  including  the  "Life  of  Marquette," 
page  520,  says:  "He  seems  to  have  taken  the  way  by  the  St. 
Joseph's  river  and  reached  the  eastern  shore  of  Lake  Michigan, 
along  which  he  had  not  yet  sailed." 

Mr.  Thomas  Weadock,  in  his  "Life  of  Marquette,"  says,  after 
speaking  of  the  founding  by  Marquette  of  the  Mission  of  the  Im- 
maculate Conception  of  the  Blessed  Virgin  at  Kaskaskia:  "The 
object  he  had  cherished  for  years  was  attained — he  had  founded 
the  Illinois  mission.  His  work  was  done;  he  was  ready  to  die. 
But  he  wished  to  die  among  his  brethren,  with  the  rites  of  holy 
church;  so  he  set  out  on  his  return  voyage  going  by  St.  Joseph's 
river  and  the  eastern  shore  of  Lake  Michigan.  Gradually  his 
strength  failed,  and  at  last  he  had  to  be  lifted  out  of  the  canoe 
when  they  stopped  for  the  night.  He  calmly  contemplated  the 
approaching  change  with  that  pious  serenity  which  became  a 
Christian  missionary.  It  is  a  characteristic  of  great  minds,  whe- 
ther pagan,  philosopher  or  Christian  man,  that  they  can  so  look 
upon  death  without  fear.  Pere  Marquette  spoke  of  his  ap- 
proaching end,  and  gave  his  attendants  instructions  so  calmly 
they  thought  he  was  speaking  of  another."  Near  the  promontory 
of  the  Sleeping  Bear,  on  the  banks  of  what  is  since  known  as 
Pere  Marquette  river,  he  died,  May  18,  1675,  aged  38  years." 
Near  the  place  of  his  death  he  was  buried  by  his  two  loving  fol- 
lowers; then  they  proceeded  on  their  journey  to  the  Straits. 

Two  years  afterwards  a  party  of  Kiskakons,  former  disciples 
of  Marquette,  sought  out  his  grave.  Placing  his  bones  in  a  birch 
box  they  reverently  conveyed  them  to  St.  Ignace. 

Page  20 


EXPLANATION.  =»  INDICATE.  Oi.oRc*os 

SLCTION  Liwts  OC.TWCC.N  Scc'&33ANo4^ — SAHO!?. 


THE    HISTORIC    PORTAGE    TRAIL    OF    LA  SALLE    AND    CHARI.EVOIX. 


LA  SALLE    AT    THE    PORTAGE. 

December  5,  1679. 


LA  SALLE    AT   THE    MIAMI    TREATY. 

March,  1681. 


THE   ABOVE    MURAL    PAINTINGS    ARE    PLACED    IN    THE    ROTUNDA    OF 
THE    ST.    JOSEPH    COUNTY     COURT    HOUSE,    SOUTH    BEND,    INDIANA. 

Painted  in  1898  by  Arthur  Thomas. 


THE   ST.   JOSEPH-KANKAKEE   PORTAGE 

In  a  history  of  Berrien  county,  Michigan,  published  in  1880, 
by  D.  W.  Ensign  &  Co.,  of  Philadelphia,  speaking  of  Marquette's 
last  voyage  and  the  establishment  of  his  mission,  we  find:  "About 
the  middle  of  April  he  set  out,  accompanied  by  his  two  French- 
men, Pierre  and  Jacques,  and  with  several  Indian  guides,  to  go 
to  Lake  Michigan  by  a  different  route  from  that  one  which  he  had 
passed  in  his  previous  journeys,  intending  to  strike  the  lake  on 
its  eastern  side  and  to  pass  northward  along  that  shore  to  Michi- 
llimackinac.  The  sick  priest  and  his  party  took  their  way  up 
the  Illinois  river  to  the  mouth  of  the  Kankakee,  and  thence  up 
the  latter  stream  to  a  point  near  its  head,  where  they  landed  and 
crossed  a  portage  of  five  or  six  miles  in  length,  which  brought 
them  to  the  waters  of  a  stream  to  which  they  gave  the  name  of 
'River  of  the  Miamis,'  because  they  found  the  principal  village 
of  that  Indian  tribe  located  a  short  distance  south  of  it."  "The 
place  where  the  Jesuit  and  his  followers  reached  the  St.  Joseph 
(River  of  the  Miamis)  is  near  the  present  city  of  South  Bend, 
Indiana,  and  from  that  point  they  passed  down  the  river  in  their 
canoes  to  its  mouth,  where  the  village  of  St.  Joseph  now  stands." 

Mr.  R.  H.  Clark,  in  the  Catholic  World,  Vol.  XVI.,  page 
699,  says  of  Marquette's  return :  "Taking  the  way  of  the  St. 
Joseph's  river  and  the  eastern  shore  of  Lake  Michigan,"  etc. 

Mr.  Charles  Green  says:  "I  think  there  is  no  doubt  but  that 
Marquette  descended  the  St.  Joseph  river  on  his  return  from  his 
last  voyage." 

Mr.  Thomas  Weadock  also  states,  in  a  letter,  regarding  Mar- 
quette's route:  "His  canoe  route  would  be  by  the  Kankakee  and 
St.  Joseph,"  thus  avoiding  the  dangers  and  privations  of  the  voy- 
age around  the  bleak  and  sand  duned  southern  curve  of  the  lake. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  his  Indian  guides  were  familiar 
with  this  route,  and  long  knew  of  the  easy  access  to  the  eastern 
shores  of  Lake  Michigan  by  way  of  the  Kankakee  and  the  port- 
age to  the  St.  Joseph  river,  and  in  their  solicitation  for  his  health 
told  him  of  the  beauties  of  this  route  and  of  the  abundance  of 
game;  and  remembering  the  ice-bound  coast  and  the  scarcity  of 
food  along  the  Chicago  route,  the  sick  and  disheartened  priest 
was  easily  won  over  to  the  advisability  of  taking  this  route. 

The  weight  of  testimony  of  the  best  authority,  is  that  Mar- 
quette made  use  of  the  St.  Joseph-Kankakee  portage. 

It  has  been  suggested  that  when  the  Northern  Indiana  His- 
torical Society  marks  with  a  monument  the  historic  highway,  via 
the  Kankakee  and  St.  Joseph  river,  the  name  of  the  illustrious 
Jesuit  be  inscribed  thereon  with  the  name  of  the  brave  explorer, 
La  Salle. 

Page  23 


THE    ST.    JOSEPH    KANKAKEE    PORTAGE 

The  main  events  subsequent  to  La  Salle's  advent  on  Lake 
Michigan,1  it  is  to  be  presumed,  are  known  to  most  of  us.  Hence 
I  will  confine  this  article  to  details  bearing  more  or  less  on  Lake 
Michigan,  the  St.  Joseph  river  and  the  portage  to  the  Kankakee, 
in  which  La  Salle  and  others  took  part. 

H.  W.  Beckwith,  member  of  the  Chicago  Historical  Society, 
in  an  article  on  "Land  of  the  Illini,"  says:  "La  Salle's  canoes, 
(which  had  been  loaded  with  the  forge,  bellows,  anvil,  black- 
smith tools,  iron  for  naik,  an  outfit  of  ship's  carpenter  and  joiner 
tools,  a  pit-saw  for  sawing  planks,  with  arms  and  merchandise), 
with  fourteen  men  and  three  missionaries,  having  coasted  the 
west  shore  and  southern  trend  of  Lake  Michigan,  arrived  at  the 
St.  Joseph  river  on  Nov.  1st,  1679.  Here  they  should  have  met 
Henry  de  Tonty,  the  second  in  command,  whose  division  was  to 
come  by  the  eastern  shore  of  the  lake,  the  much  shorter  route.  He 
had  been  sent  up  to  the  trade  and  mission  post  at  the  head  of  the 
Sault  St.  Marie,  to  catch  and  bring  in  two  men  who  had  run  away 
from  service.  This  work  and  a  series  of  mishaps,  needless  here 
to  recount,  detained  him  and  seriously  delayed  the  whole  expedi- 
tion. While  waiting  for  Tonty,  La  Salle  occupied  his  men  in 
building  a  storehouse  and  fort2  on  the  crown  of  a  sandhill  that 
skirted  the  southern  shore  of  the  river's  mouth,  to  serve  for  a 
security  for  the  Griffin,3  with  the  supplies  it  was  to  bring,  as  well 
as  a  place  of  refuge  for  the  men  in  case  of  need.  This  work 
was  called  Fort  Miami.  To  assure  a  safe  harbor  for  the  vessel, 
La  Salle  sounded  the  river  mouth  and  marked  its  either  side  with 
two  tall  poles  with  bear-skin  pendants  and  with  buoys  all  along. 
Finally  towards  the  last  of  November,  Tonty  came  with  all  his 
men;  and  on  December  third,  the  united  force,  numbering  twen- 
ty-eight all  told,  and  eight  canoes,  began  the  ascent  of  the  St. 
Joseph.  Four  men  were  left  behind;  two4  at  the  Fort  to  give  no- 

1.  See  Parkman's  Discovery  of  the  Great  West,  and  Spark's  Life 

of  Chevalier  de  La  Salle. 

2.  A  breastwork  of  hewn  logs,  enclosing  a  space  eighty  by  forty 

feet,  which  for  greater  security  was  surrounded  by  pali- 
sades. See  Hennepin's  Description  de  le  Louisiane. 

3.  La  Salle's  vessel  was  named  the  Griffin,  in  compliment  to  the 

Count  de  Frontenac,  the  Governor  of  Canada,  whose  arm- 
orial bearings  were  adorned  by  two  griffins  as  suoporters. 

4.  This  is  according  to  the  statement  of  Le  Clercq.     Hennepin 

does  not  mention  this  fact,  and  it  is  not  orobable  that  so 
small  a  number  would  have  been  left  at  the  fort,  exposed 
to  the  attacks  of  roving  savages.  There  seems  to  be  no 
good  reason  for  questioning  the  accuracy  of  Hennepin's 
narrative,  concerning  La  Salle's  first  trip  on  the  St.  Joseph 
river.  Forty-two  years  afterwards,  Charlevoix  traveled 
over  the  same  route  and  his  description  of  natural  objects, 
the  course  of  the  river  and  distances,  agree  very  closely 
with  that  of  Hennepin. 

Page  2t 


THE    ST.   JOSEPH-KANKAKEE   PORTAGE 


Fac-simile  of  signature  to  deed  written  at  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Joseph  River 
December  2,  1682,  when  LaSalle  conveyed  certain  lands  to  M.   Accault. 

tice  in  case  the  Iroquois  savages  invaded  the  Illinois  country,  as 
La  Salle  feared.  The  other  two,  Nicolas  Laurent,  nicknamed  La 
Chapelle,  and  Noel  le  Blanc,  a  ship-carpenter,  were  to  go  back 
looking  for  the  Griffin  as  far  as  Mackinac,  and  if  they  found  it,  to 
inform  the  pilot  of  the  arrangements  and  assist  him  in  guiding 
the  vessel  into  the  harborage  named.  After  the  portage  from  the 
St.  Joseph  was  made,  and  the  Kankakee  and  Illinois  rivers  were 
coursed,  the  voyagers  came  to  the  great  Illinois  village  that  skir- 
ted the  northern  shore  for  nearly  two  miles  down  to  and  opposite 
le  Rocher  (the  rocks,  or  Starved  Rocks.)" 

La  Salle's  party  which  ascended  the  St.  Joseph  river  is  vari- 
ously estimated  by  different  authorities,  at  from  twenty-eight  to 
thirty-four.  Following,  I  give  their  names  so  far  as  can  be  ascer- 
tained: 

Rene  Robert  Cavelier,  Sieur  de  La  Salle. 

Chevalier  Henry  de  Tonty,  La  Salle's  Lieutenant,  an  Italian 
by  birth,  who  had  been  for  several  years  in  the  French 
army  and  had  lost  a  hand  in  the  service.  He  was  a  son 
of  the  great  financier  who  invented  the  Tontine,  a  me- 
thod of  life  insurance,  adopted  in  France. 
Oui-oui-la-mech  (wee-wee-le-meck)  a  Mohegan  Indian,  and 
La  Salle's  guide. 

Page  25 


THE   ST.   JOSEPH-KANKAKEE   PORTAGE 

John  Boisrondet,  La  Salle's  Private  Secretary  and  Accountant. 

L'  Esperance  de  la  Brie,  La  Salle's  body  servant. 

Father  Louis  Hennepin. 

Father  Gabriel  de  la  Ribourde. 

Father  Zenobe  Membre,  religious  teacher. 

Jean  Russell  (La  Rousseliere)  La  Salle's  partner  at  La  Chine. 

Michel  Accault   (Ako),  afterwards  a  trader. 

John  Francis  Bourdon,  afterwards  Sieur  d'Antray,  a  son  of 
John  Bourdon,  Attorney  General  and  Chief  Engineer  of 
Canada. 

Anthony  Augelle,  (Picard  du  Gay.) 

Etienne  Renault,  the  Parisian. 

La  Violette,  of  Lyons. 

Moyse  Hilleret,  the  master  ship  builder. 

Jean  le  Mire,  a  ship  carpenter. 

Jean  Mielleor,  (La  Forge),  the  nail  maker. 

Andrew  Henault. 

Colin  Crevell. 

Nicholas  Crevell. 

Nicholas  Laurent. 

Jacques  Messier. 

Jean  Richeon. 

Martin  Chartier. 

Nicholas  Duplessis. 

Jean  La  Croix. 

Michel  Baribault. 

Bois  d'Ardeene. 

John  Gilmary  Shea,  on  page  three  hundred  and  twenty-three 
of  his  work,  entitled  "The  Catholic  Church  in  Colonial  Days," 
says:  "La  Salle's  party;  accompanied  by  a  New  England  Indian 
guide,  reaching  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Joseph  river,  La  Salle  dur- 
ing the  month  of  November,  1679,  threw  up  a  rude  fort  and  in  it 
built  a  bark  cabin,  the  first  Catholic  Church  in  the  lower  penin- 
sula of  Michigan.  It  was  apparently  dedicated  to  St.  Anthony  of 
Padua,  as  he  had  promised  on  the  voyage  to  dedicate  the  first 
chapel  to  that  saint." 

To  continue  the  narrative  of  this  trip,  I  will  review  the  ver- 
sions familiar  to  American  readers;  citing  first  from  Justin  Win- 
sor's  "Cartier  to  Frontenac,"  page  264. 

"On  December  3rd,  1679,  La  Salle  with  eight  canoes  and 
thirty-three  men,  started  up  the  St.  Joseph  river.  There  was 
nothing  to  cheer  them  in  the  stretch  of  dreary  fields  and  bare 
woods  which  lined  the  river's  channel.  His  anxiety  about  the 
Griffin  weighed  him  down  throughout  the  seventy  sad  miles.  For 
a  while  he  despaired  of  finding  the  portage;  at  last  it  was  discov- 

Page  26 


THE   ST.   JOSEPH-KANKAKEE   PORTAGE 

ered,  and  there  was  a  severe  haul  over  five  miles  of  stiffened  ooze. 
When  they  once  more  launched  their  canoes  on  the  Kankakee, 
they  slipped  along  with  the  welcome  current  through  open  prai- 
ries." 

From  Winsor's  "Narrative  and  Critical  History  of  America," 
Vol.  IV.,  Page  224;  edition  1884:  "They  now  together  went  up 
the  St.  Joseph  River  and,  crossing  the  portage,  launched  their 
canoes  on  the  Kankakee." 

On  page  25,  Mr.  Winsor  in  his  work  "The  Mississippi  Basin" 
says:  "In  the  southeast  angle  of  the  lake  (Michigan),  was  the 
portage  of  the  St.  Joseph  river,  which  La  Salle  was  much  accus- 
tomed to  traverse.  There  was  by  it  about  four  miles  of  carriage 
to  the  Kankakee." 

Francis  Parkman  in  his  "Discovery  of  the  Great  West," 
says: 

"He,  (La  Salle)  pushed  on,  however,  circling  around  the 
southern  shore  of  Lake  Michigan,  till  he  reached  the  mouth  of  the 
St.  Joseph.  Here  Tonty  was  to  have  rejoined  him,  with  twenty 
men,  making  his  way  from  Michillimackinac,  along  the  eastern 
shore  of  the  lake;  but  the  rendezvous  was  a  solitude;  Tonty  was 
nowhere  to  be  seen.  It  was  the  first  of  November.  Winter  was  at 
hand  and  the  streams  would  soon  be  frozen.  The  men  clamored 
to  go  forward,  urging  that  they  should  starve  if  they  could  not 
reach  the  village  of  the  Illinois  before  the  tribe  scattered  for  the 
winter  hunt.  La  Salle  was  inexorable.  If  they  should  all  desert, 
he  said,  he,  with  his  Mohegan  hunter  and  the  three  friars,  would 
still  remain  and  wait  for  Tonty.  The  men  grumbled,  but  obeyed; 
and,  to  divert  their  thoughts,  he  set  them  at  building  a  fort  of 
timber,  on  a  raising  ground  at  the  mouth  of  the  river. 

"They  had  spent  twenty  days  at  this  task,  and  their  work 
•was  well  advanced,  when  at  length  Tonty  appeared.  He  brought 
with  him  only  half  of  his  men.  Provisions  had  failed;  and  the 
rest  of  his  party  had  been  left  thirty  leagues  behind,  to  sustain 
themselves  by  hunting.  La  Salle  told  him  to  return  and  hasten 
them  forward.  He  set  out  with  two  men.  A  violent  north  wind 
arose.  He  tried  to  run  his  canoe  ashore  through  the  breakers. 
The  two  men  could  not  manage  their  vessel,  and  he  with  his  one 
hand  could  not  help  them.  She  swamped,  rolling  over  in  the 
surf.  Guns,  baggage  and  provisions  were  lost;  and  the  three 
voyagers  returned  to  the  Miamis,  subsisting  on  acorns  by  the 
way.  Happily,  the  men  left  behind,  excepting  two  deserters, 
succeeded,  a  few  days  after,  in  rejoining  the  party. 

"Thus  was  one  heavy  load  lifted  from  the  heart  of  La  Salle. 
But  where  was  the  'Griffin?'  Time  enough,  and  more  than 
enough,  had  passed  for  her  voyage  to  Niagara  and  back  again. 

Page  27 


THE    ST.    JOSEPH-KANKAKEE    PORTAGE 

He  scanned  the  dreary  horizon  with  an  anxious  eye.  No  return- 
ing sail  gladdened  the  watery  solitude,  and  a  dark  forboding 
gathered  on  his  heart.  Yet  farther  delay  was  impossible.  He 
sent  back  two  men  to  Michillimackinac  to  meet  her,  if  she  still 
existed,  and  pilot  her  to  his  new  fort  of  the  Miamis,  and  then  pre- 
pared to  ascend  the  river,  whose  weedy  edges  were  already 
glassed  with  thin  flakes  of  ice. 

"On  the  third  of  December,  the  party  re-embarked,  thirty- 
three  in  all,  in  eight  canoes,  and  ascended  the  chill  current  of  the 
St.  Joseph,  bordered  with  dreary  meadows  and  bare  gray  forests. 
When  they  approached  the  site  of  the  present  village  of  South 
Bend,  they  looked  anxiously  along  the  shore  on  their  right  to 
find  the  portage  or  path  leading  to  the  headquarters  of  the  Illi- 
nois. The  Mohegan  was  absent,  hunting;  and  unaided  by  his 
practiced  eye,  they  passed  the  path  without  seeing  it.  La  Salle 
landed  to  search  the  woods.  Hours  passed,  and  he  did  not  re- 
turn. Hennepin  and  Tonty  grew  uneasy,  disembarked,  bivou- 
acked, ordered  guns  to  be  fired,  and  sent  out  men  to  scour  the 
country.  Night  came,  but  not  their  lost  leader.  Muffled  in  their 
blankets  and  powdered  by  the  thick-falling  snow-flakes,  they  sat 
ruefully  speculating  as  to  what  had  befallen  him;  nor  was  it  till 
four  o'clock  of  the  next  afternoon  that  they  saw  him  approach- 
ing along  the  margin  of  the  river.  His  face  and  hands  were  be- 
smirched with  charcoal;  and  he  was  farther  decorated  with  two 
opossums,  which  hung  from  his  belt,  and  which  he  had  killed 
with  a  stick  as  they  were  swinging  head  downwards  from  the 
bough  of  a  tree,  after  the  fashion  of  that  singular  animal.  He  had 
missed  his  way  in  the  forest,  and  had  been  forced  to  make  a  wide 
circuit  around  the  edge  of  a  swamp;1  while  the  snow,  of  which  the 
air  was  full,  added  to  his  perplexities.  Thus  he  pushed  on  through 
the  rest  of  the  day  and  the  greater  part  of  the  night,  till  about 
two  o'clock  in  the  morning  he  reached  the  river  again  and  fired 
his  gun  as  a  signal  to  his  party.  Hearing  no  answering  shot,  he 
pursued  his  way  along  the  bank,  when  he  presently  saw  the  gleam 
of  a  fire  among  the  dense  thickets  close  at  hand.  Not  doubting 
that  he  had  found  the  bivouac  of  his  party,  he  hastened  to  the 
spot.  To  his  surprise,  no  human  being  was  to  be  seen.  Under 
a  tree  beside  the  fire  was  a  heap  of  dry  grass  impressed  with  the 
form  of  a  man  who  must  have  fled  but  a  moment  before,  for  his 
couch  was  still  warm.  It  was,  no  doubt  an  Indian,  ambushed  on 
the  bank,  watching  to  kill  some  passing  enemy.  La  Salle  called 
out  in  several  Indian  languages;  but  there  was  dead  silence  all 
around.  He  then,  with  admirable  coolness,  took  possession  of 

1.     Evidently  the  swamp   near  Mishawaka,   Indiana,   four  miles 
above  South  Bend. 

Page  28 


MAP    OF    RIVERVIEW   AND    HIGHLAND    CEMETERIES,    IN    SOUTH    BEND 
SHOWING    THE    RELATIVE    POSITION    OF    LA  SALI.E's    LANDING. 


THE   ST.   JOSEPH-KANKAKEE   PORTAGE 

the  quarters  he  had  found,  shouting  to  their  invisible  proprietor 
that  he  was  about  to  sleep  in  his  bed;  piled  a  barricade  of  bushes 
around  the  spot,  rekindled  the  dying  fire,  warmed  his  benumbed 
hands,  stretched  himself  on  the  dried  grass  and  slept  undisturbed 
till  morning. 

"The  Mohegan  had  rejoined  the  party  before  La  Salle's  return 
and  with  his  aid  the  portage  was  soon  found.  Here  the  party 
encamped.  La  Salle,  who  was  fatigued,  occupied,  together  with 
Hennepin,  a  wigwam  covered  in  the  Indian  manner  with  mats  of 
reed.  The  cold  forced  them  to  kindle  a  fire,  which  before  day- 
break set  the  mats  in  a  blaze;  and  the  two  sleepers  narrowly 
escaped  being  burned  along  with  their  hut. 

"In  the  morning  the  party  shouldered  their  canoes  and  bag- 
gage and  began  their  march  for  the  sources  of  the  River  Illinois, 
some  five  miles  distant.  Around  them  stretched  a  desolate  plain, 
half  covered  with  snow,  and  strewn  with  the  skulls  and  bones  of 
buffalo;  while,  on  its  farthest  verge,  they  could  see  the  lodges  of 
the  Miami  Indians,  who  had  made  this  place  their  abode.  They 
soon  reached  a  spot  where  the  oozy,  saturated  soil  quaked  be- 
neath their  tread.  All  around  were  clumps  of  alder  bushes,  tufts 
of  rank  grass  and  pools  of  water.  In  the  midst,  a  dark  and  lazy 
current,  which  a  tall  man  might  bestride,  crept  twisting  like  a 
snake  among  the  weeds  and  rushes.  Here  were  the  sources  of 
the  Kankakee,  one  of  the  heads  of  the  Illinois.  They  set  their 
canoes  on  this  thread  of  water,  embarked  their  baggage  and  them- 
selves, and  pushed  down  the  sluggish  streamlet,  looking  at,  a  little 
distance,  like  men  who  sailed  on  land.  Fed  by  an  unceasing  trib- 
ute of  the  spongy  soil,  it  quickly  widened  to  a  river;  and  they 
floated  on  their  way  through  a  voiceless,  lifeless  solitude  of  dreary 
oak  barrens  or  boundless  marshes,  overgrown  with  reeds.  At 
night,  they  built  their  fire  on  ground  made  firm  by  frost  and  biv- 
ouacked among  the  rushes.  A  few  days  brought  them  to  a  more 
favored  region." 

Jared  Sparks,  in  his  Life  of  "Chevalier  de  la  Salle,"  says: 
"Having  waited  as  long  as  prudence  would  admit,  La  Salle  re- 
solved to  go  forward.  Ice  had  formed  in  the  river,  but  it  was 
dissolved  by  a  favorable  change  of  the  weather.  On  the  3rd  of 
December  the  whole  party,  consisting  of  thirty-three  persons, 
Vook  their  departure  from  the  fort  in  eight  canoes  and  ascended 
to  the  portage.  The  distance  was  about  seventy  miles.  Although 
a  canoe  had  before  gone  up  the  river  to  search  for  the  portage, 
yet  its  exact  position  had  not  been  ascertained.  The  Sieur  de  La 
Salle  landed  to  explore  the  country  above,  and  was  gone  so  long 
that  his  companions  began  to  be  alarmed  for  his  safety.  While 
he  was  wandering  at  some  distance  from  the  river,  hoping  to  dis- 

Page  30 


THE    ST.    JOSEPH-KANKAKEE    PORTAGE 

cover  the  source  of  the  eastern  branch  of  the  Illinois,  he  fell  upon 
marshy  grounds  covered  with  thick  bushes,  which  compelled  him 
to  take  a  large  circuit,  and  darkness  overtook  him  on  his  way. 
He  fired  his  gun,  but  the  signal  was  not  answered.  By  good  luck, 
however,  he  espied  a  light  not  far  off,  which  he  approached,  and 
found  near  the  fire  a  bed  of  leaves,  upon  which  a  man  had  been 
reposing,  probably  an  Indian,  who  startled  at  the  sound  of  the 
gun,  had  made  a  precipitate  escape.  Weary  with  the  fatigue  of 
the  day,  and  chilled  by  the  falling  snow,  La  Salle  at  once  came  to 
the  resolution  of  appropriating  these  comfortable  quarters  to  him- 
self for  the  night.  Cutting  down  the  bushes,  and  so  arranging 
them  around  his  little  encampment  that  no  one  could  approach 
without  making  a  noise  that  would  arouse  him  from  his  slumbers 
in  time  for  defense,  he  threw  himself  upon  the  couch  of  leaves  and 
slept  undisturbed  until  morning.  In  the  afternoon  he  rejoined 
his  companions,  who  were  overjoyed  at  his  safe  return.  Two 
opossums  were  hanging  from  his  belt,  which  he  had  killed  with  a 
club  while  suspended  by  their  tails  from  the  branches  of  trees. 
Two  days  had  passed  in  an  unsuccessful  search  for  the  portage. 
At  last  the  faithful  Indian  hunter,  who  had  been  out  to  look  for 
deer,  came  in  and  told  them  where  it  was,  and  that  they  had  gone 
too  far  up  the  river.  By  his  aid  the  place  was  found,  and  the 
canoes  and  all  their  contents  were  carried  over  a  distance  of  five 
or  six  miles  to  the  head-waters  of  the  Kankakee.  The  precaution 
had  been  taken  to  leave  letters  hanging  from  branches  of  trees  in 
conspicious  places,  both  at  the  fort  and  the  portage,  containing 
instructions  for  the  captain  of  the  Griffin,  in  case  he  should  arrive. 
For  nearly  a  hundred  miles  from  its  source  the  Kankakee  winds 
through  marshes,  which  afford  growth  to  little  else  than  tall  rush- 
es and  alders.  A  more  desolate  scene  in  the  midst  of  winter  could 
hardly  be  imagined.  At  length  the  canoes  floated  on  the  waters 
of  the  Illinois,  after  a  voyage  of  three  hundred  miles  by  the  wind- 
ings of  the  Kankakee  from  the  portage." 

Reynolds,  in  his  "Pioneer  History  of  Illinois,"  page  17,  says: 
"At  Green  Bay  the  Griffin  was  loaded  with  furs  and  sent  to  Ni- 
agara, while  LaSalle,  with  fourteen  men,  started  for  the  Miamis, 
or  St.  Joseph  river.  There  the  party  waited  for  the  return  of 
the  Griffin.  At  this  point  LaSalle  built  a  fort.  The  party,  on 
the  3rd  of  December,  consisting  of  thirty  laborers  and  three 
monks,  went  up  the  St.  Joseph,  crossed  the  portage  to  the  Theau- 
keki,  now  Kankakee,  and  down  to  the  Illinois  river." 

From  Abbot's  "The  Adventures  of  Chevalier  de  LaSalle  and 
His  Companions."  page  123,  edition  1875,  we  quote:  "On  the 
3rd  of  December  the  whole  party  of  thirty-three  persons,  in  eight 
canoes,  left  Fort  Miami,  as  LaSalle  called  his  works,  and  paddled 

Page  31 


THE    ST.    JOSEPH-KANKAKEE    PORTAGE 

up  the  river  a  distance  of  seventy  miles  towards  the  south.  Con- 
siderable time  was  lost  in  endeavoring  to  find  the  trail  or  portage 
which  led  from  the  St.  Joseph  river  to  the  head-waters  of  the 
Kankakee,  which  is  the  eastern  branch  of  the  Illinois  river.  At 
length  their  Indian  hunter  found  the  trail;  the  men  took  the  canoes 
and  freight  upon  their  shoulders  and  carried  them  over  the  port- 
age of  five  or  six  miles,  which  the  Indians  had  traversed  for  count- 
less ages.  Dreary  in  the  extreme  was  the  wintry  landscape  which 
now  opened  before  them;  the  ground  was  frozen  hard;  ice  fringed 
the  stream,  and  the  flat,  marshy  expanse  was  whitened  with 
snow.  For  nearly  a  hundred  miles  the  sluggish  Kankakee  flowed 
through  a  morass  which  afforded  growth  to  but  little  more  than 
rushes  and  alders." 

From  Sidney  Breese's  "History  of  Illinois,"  page  105,  we 
take  the  following:  "By  Hennepin's  narrative  it  would  seem  that 
having  left  the  mouth  of  the  Miamis  on  the  second  day  of  Decem- 
ber, 1679,  they  rowed  twenty-five  leagues  (seventy-five  miles)  in  a 
southwest  direction,  and  reached  the  Illinois  (Kankakee),  navi- 
gable for  canoes  to  within  one  hundred  paces  of  its  source." 

Bancroft,  in  his  "History  of  the  United  States,"  Vol.  II.,  page 
163,  says:  "La  Salle,  with  Louis  Hennepin  and  two  other  Fran- 
ciscans with  Tonti,  and  about  thirty  followers,  ascended  the  St. 
Joseph,  and  after  one  short  portage  entered  a  branch  of  the  Kan- 
kakee, which  connects  with  the  Illinois." 

"Dunn's  Indiana,"  on  page  26,  contains  the  following  state- 
ment: "La  Salle's  movements  in  1679  and  1680,  had  little  to  do 
with  Indiana,  except  that  the  St.  Joseph  and  Kankakee  rivers 
were  his  customary  route  of  travel  to  Illinois,  the  portage  being 
made  at  the  site  of  South  Bend." 

In  Perkins'  "Annals  of  the  West,"  on  page  37,  we  find  this 
statement:  "On  the  third  of  December,  1679,  having  mustered 
all  his  forces,  thirty  laborers  and  three  monks,  after  having  left 
ten  men  to  garrison  the  fort,  La  Salle  started  again  upon  his  great 
voyage  and  glorious  undertaking,  ascending  the  St.  Joseph  river 
in  the  southwestern  part  of  Michigan  to  a  point  where,  by  a  short 
portage,  they  pass  to  the  Theaukiki,  now  corrupted  into  Kankakee, 
a  main  branch  of  the  Illinois  river." 

In  an  article  entitled  "Cavelier  de  La  Salle,"  which  appeared 
in  the  Chicago  Times,  Feb.  25,  1882,  we  find  the  following:  "After 
great  suffering  and  many  thrilling  adventures,  they  reached  the 
mouth  of  the  St.  Joseph  river,  and  after  waiting,  were  joined  by 
Tonly,  whom  La  Salle  had  sent  to  Sault  Ste.  Marie  from  Macki- 
naw, to  look  after  his  fur  gatherers.  The  3rd  of  December  the  ex- 
pedition began  the  ascent  of  the  St.  Joseph  river,  near  the  site  of 
the  present  City  of  South  Bend,  Indiana.  The  canoes,  eight  in 
number,  were  carried  across  to  the  Kankakee." 

Page  32 


THE    ST.    JOSEPH-KANKAKEE    PORTAGE 

The  above  citations  are  about  all  we  have  of  the  details  of 
La  Salle's  first  trip  through  this  region,  when  he  made  use  of  our 
portage,  as  told  by  American  historians.  From  these  accounts  it 
appears  that  the  portage  landing  was  obscure  and  difficult  to  lo- 
cate, and  that,  when  found,  the  distance  was  estimated  at  twenty- 
five  leagues  by  some,  and  from  seventy  to  seventy-five  miles  by 
others  from  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Joseph  river,  and  that  the  port- 
age was  across  a  vast  plain,  a  part  of  which  was  a  quaking,  oozy 
bog;  that  on  the  western  verge  of  the  plain  was  located  an  Indian 
village;  that  the  portage  was  variously  estimated  at  from  four  to 
six  miles  in  length;  that  the  source  of  the  Kankakee  was  in  the 
midst  of  a  quaking,  saturated  soil,  all  around  which  were  pools  or 
ponds  of  glistening  water,  and  that  it  was  navigable  to  within  one 
hundred  paces  of  its  source.  It  also  appears  that  Francis  Park- 
man,  the  historian,  who  went  over  the  trail  in  the  year  1848, 
graphically  describes  the  portage  and  the  Kankakee  river;  also 
the  ponds  or  pools,  which  are  still  in  existence,  and  states  in  par- 
ticular that  here  were  the  sources  of  the  Kankakee;  all  of  which 
harmonizes  in  every  detail  with  the  portage  as  outlined  by  the 
Goverment  Surveyor  and  by  the  testimony  of  living  witnesses. 

No  other  stream  was  known  as  the  Kankakee  at  the  time  of 
Parkman's  visit,  nor  before,  back  as  far  as  1828,  the  time  of  the 
Goverment  survey.1  All  the  streams  in  this  county  were  well 
known  by  their  present  names.  We  can  hardly  believe  that  a 
careful  writer  like  Francis  Parkman,  who  verified  every  state- 
ment2 he  made  by  personally  examining  every  locality  that  came 
into  his  story,  could  err  in  this  particular  vital  point  of  the  por- 
tage, especially  as  this  description  of  this  part  of  La  Salle's  trip 
was  the  cause  of  his  visit  to  this  locality. 

Fortunately,  we  have  access  to  the  documents,  the  very  source 
from  which  our  historians  have  taken  their  accounts  of  La  Salle's 
use  of  the  portage;  and  I  will  later  cite  the  evidence  from  these 
documents  in  order  that  those  who  are  acquainted  with  the  topog- 
raphy of  this  region  may  form  a  correct  idea  as  to  the  location  of 
the  portage  as  described  by  the  actual  explorers.  In  this  place 
we  give  a  list  of  the  original  sources.  1.  Description  de  la  Lou- 
isiane,  par  le  R.  P.  Louis  Hennepin;  Paris  Ed.,  1687,  taken  from 
the  volume  owned  by  the  Chicago  Public  Library.  2.  John  Gil- 
mary  Shea's  translation  of  Hennepin's  "Description  de  la  Louisi- 
ane,"  of  the  Paris  Ed.,  1683.  3.  From  Le  Clercq's  "Establish- 
ment of  the  Faith  in  New  France,"  Paris  Ed.,  1691.  4.  From 

1.  But  three  streams  are  mentioned  by  name  in  the  Survey  by 

Brookfield;   viz.,  the  St.  Joseph  river,  the  Kankakee  river 
and  the  Grapevine  creek. 

2.  See  Life  of  Francis  Parkman,  by  Julius  H.  Ward,  published  in 

McClure's  Magazine — Vol.  II,  page  185. 

Page  33 


THE    ST.    JOSEPH-KANKAKEE   PORTAGE 

Memoir  by  the  Sieur  de  la  Tonti,  "On  the  Discovery  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi and  the  Neighboring  Nations,"  by  M.  de  La  Salle,  from 
the  year  1678  to  the  time  of  his  death;  published  in  French's 
"Historical  Collections  of  Louisana,"  N.  Y.  Ed.,  1846.  5.  "La 
Salle's  Dairy,"  library  of  Chicago  Historical  Society.  6.  From 
"Charlevoix's  Letters,"  dated  on  the  St.  Joseph  river,  August  16, 
1721,  and  "On  the  Source  of  the  Theakiki,"  September  17,  1721, 
to  the  Madame  la  Duchesse  de  Lesdiquiers,  Paris  Ed.,  1744,  and 
London  Ed.,  1763;  from  copies  in  the  Boston  Athenaeum.  7. 
From  Daniel  Coxe's  "Carolania."  8.  From  a  "Memoir  on  the 
Indian  Tribes  Between  Lake  Erie  and  the  Mississippi  River," 
Paris  document,  1718,  contained  in  the  Colonial  History  of  New 
York,  Vol.  IX.,  page  889. 

We  will  also  present  reproductions  of  the  early  maps  on 
which  are  traced  the  St.  Joseph  river,  the  Kankakee  river,  to- 
gether with  the  location  of  the  portage  as  drawn  by  the  early 
writers  and  explorers. 

Before  we  can  intelligently  analyze  the  several  accounts  and 
harmonize  them  with  present  day  surveys,  we  must  know  with 
some  degree  of  certainty  the  equivalent  of  the  itinerary  or  linear 
French  league  in  English  miles;  for  these  early  writers  made  use 
of  the  league  in  stating  distances.  It  is  remarkable  how  they 
were  able  to  estimate  distances;  especially  distances  on  land. 
Distances  by  water  they  did  not  estimate  with  such  accuracy. 
No  doubt  the  currents  and  winds  had  something  to  do  with  this; 
but  even  these  estimates  harmonize  in  a  marvelous  degree.  The 
league  in  use  in  New  France,  and  used  by  La  Salle,  Hennepin, 
Tonty  and  Charlevoix,  was  the  old  French  itinerary  or  linear 
league;  the  league  now  in  use  in  all  the  seigniories  in  Canada.  It 
was  the  equivalent  of  3.052  English  or  statute  miles. 

Mr.  Reuben  G.  Thwaites,  Secretary  of  the  Wisconsin  His- 
torical Society,  says,  in  a  note  on  page  268,  Vol.  IV.,  of  the  new 
edition  of  "The  Jesuit  Relations  and  Allied  Documents":  "The 
linear  arpent  of  Paris  was  180  feet  (variously  computed  at  from 
191.83  to  192.3  English  feet).  This  was  the  one  used  in  New 
France  under  the  Contume  de  Paris,  and  it  still  remains  the  legal 
measure  in  all  the  seignories  of  Quebec.  The  Quebec  Department 
of  Crown  lands,  which  we  adopt  as  authority,  translates  the  arpent 
into  191.85  feet."  Parenthetically,  Mr.  Thwaites  states  in  his  note 
that  there  are  84  arpents  in  a  French  league. 

Webster's  Unabridged  Dictionary  states  that  the  league  is  a 
measure  of  length  or  distance  equal  in  England  and  the  United 
States  to  three  geographical  miles. 

Mr.  N.  E.  Dionne,  Librarian  of  the  Bibliotheque  de  la  Legisla- 
ture, de  la  Province  de  Quebec,  regarded  as  the  highest  authority 
on  these  matters,  says,  in  a  letter  dated  Quebec,  June  2,  1897: 

Page  34 


THE    ST.   JOSEPH-KANKAKEE   PORTAGE 


1       LA  SALLE.  AI4D  !-i-S  PJ 
TP-E  FIRST  WHITE  MEN 

••-.•;• 

FROM  TOE  S-.JOSEK-  r 

!   >ND  JOURNEYl. 
OLD  HJKAii    . 
l7aAIL  TO  TF.. 
liEfltefc 

,   -?OT,  S  ' 


A.    B.    MARKER    PLACED    ON    THE    LINE    OF   THE 

Erected  in  October,  1923. 


To  GEO.  A.  BAKER. 

"DEAR  SIR: — After  having  consulted  persons  of  great  ability 
on  the  question,  I  may  state:  First.  The  arpent  used  in  the 
French  Canadian  colonies  in  their  early  history,  was  the  same  as 
the  one  in  use  at  the  present  day.  Second.  The  arpent,  which 
is  still  the  legal  measure  in  all  the  seigniories  of  the  country,  the 
Province  of  Quebec,  is  the  arpent  de  Paris,  equal  to  180  pied  de 
Poi  French  feet,  or  to  191.85  English  feet.  Third.  The  French 
league  is  equal  to  84  arpents  de  Paris.  We  must  not  forget  that 
the  present  French  system  (metric)  is  not  the  French  Canadian 
system  used  now  and  existing  since  the  beginning  of  our  coun- 
try, i.  e.,  1608.  The  old  system  is  well  known: 

1  arpent  equals  160  pied  de  Roi. 
84  arpents  equal      1  league. 
28  arpents  equal       1  mile. 

"This  is  our  legal  measure  in  use  in  all  our  Province.  In 
France  it  is  quite  different.  Yours  truly, 

N.  E.  DIONNE." 

Page  35 


THE    ST.   JOSEPH-KANKAKEE   PORTAGE 

Mr.  George  M.  Wrong,  Professor  of  History  in  the  University 
of  Toronto,  and  editor  of  Review  of  Historical  Publications  relat- 
ing to  Canada,  writes  that:  "M.  Dionne  may  be  regarded  as  an 
authority  on  these  matters,"  and  he  has  consulted  others  also. 

Mr.  Douglas  Brynmer,  Public  Archivist  of  the  Dominion  of 
Canada,  says,  in  a  letter  dated: 

Ottawa,  May  20th,  1897. 

"There  were  several  varieties  of  league;  but 

the  one  that  Charlevoix  undoubtedly  meant  was  the  ordinary 
league  of  84  arpents.  That  will  give  3.051  plus  522075280th 
statute  miles.  You  need  have  no  hesitation  in  assuming  Charle- 
voix's  league  to  be  3.052  statute  or  English  miles.  Yours  truly, 

"DOUGLAS  BRYNMER. 

Mr.  Jared  Sparks,  in  his  "Life  of  Father  Marquette,"  also 
in  his  "Life  of  LaSalle,"  estimates  that  the  league  was  equal  to 
three  English  miles. 

I  need  hardly  say  that  the  authorities  agree  as  to  the  length 
of  the  league  in  vogue  in  the  colonies  of  New  France.  State- 
ments to  the  effect  that  the  French  posting  league  of  2.42  Eng- 
lish miles  was  the  one  used  in  New  France  seem  to  be  without 
foundation,  and  was  not  used  in  the  Colonies  at  all  so  far  as  I  can 
learn  from  Canadian  authorities.  The  posting  league  was  a  short 
league  and  not  a  legal  measure.  The  editor  of  the  "Century  Dic- 
tionary" says  in  a  letter  dated,  June  5,  1897:  "It  was  naturally 
taken  advantage  of  in  agreements  about  the  hiring  of  horses  and 
conveyances." 

We  will  now  proceed  with  the  quotations  from  the  writings 
of  the  explorers  and  others. 

From  the  "Description  de  la  Louisiane,"  par  le  R.  P.  Louis 
Hennepin,  beginning  at  page  112,  and  citing  only  that  pertain- 
ing paticularly  to  the  St.  Joseph-Kankakee  river  portage: 

"Nous  embarquamesle  troisieme  Decembre,  avec  trente  hom- 
mes,  dans  huit  Canots  &  nous  remontames  la  riviere  des  Miamis 
faisant  nostre  route  au  Sud  est  durant  environ  vingt-cinq  Hues, 
nous  ne  pumes  reconnoistre  le  Portage  que  nous  devoins  faire  de 
nos  canots  &  de  tout  1'equipage  pour  aller  nous  embarquer  a  la 
source  de  la  riviere  Siegnelay  &  comme  nous  estions  montez  plus 
haul  en  canot  sans  reconnoistre  le  lieu  ou  nous  devious  marcher 
par  terre  pour  prendre  cette  autre  Riviere  qui  se  vavendre  aux 
Islinois,  nous  fismes  halte,  pour  attendre  le  Sieur  de  la  Salle,  qui 
estoit  alle  par  terre  a  la  decouverte,  &  comme  il  ne  revenoit  point 
nous  ne  scavions  quelle  resolution  prendre." 

Page  117.  "Nostre  Sauvage  estoit  reste  derriere  nous  pour 
chasser  &  ne  nous  trouvant  point  au  portage  il  monta  plus  haut, 

Page  36 


THE    ST.    JOSEPH-KANKAKEE   PORTAGE 

&  nous  vint  dire  qiiil  fallolt  dcscendre  la  Riviere  Ton  envoya  avec 
luy  tous  nos  canots,  &  je  restay  avec  le  Sieur  de  la  Salle  qui 
estoir  fort  fatigue." 

Page  118.  "Nous  joignimes  nos  gens  le  lendemain  au  port- 
age, ou  le  Pere  Gabriel  avoit  fait  plusieurs  Croix  sur  des  arbres 
pour  nous  le  faire  reconnoistre.  *  *  Get  endroit  est  scitue 

au  bord  d'une  grande  campagne,  a  1'extremite  de  laquelle  du  coste 
du  Couchaut  il  y  a  un  Village  de  Miamis,  Mascoutens  &  Oiaton 
ramaslez  ensemble." 

Page  119.  "La  Riviere  Seignelay  qui  passe  aux  Islinois 
prend  sa  source  dans  une  campagne  au  milieu  de  beaucoup  de 
terres  tremblantes,  Sur  les  quelles  on  pent  a  peine  marcher,  cette 
Riviere  n'est  Eloignie  que  d'une  lieue  &  demie  de  celle  des  Miamis, 
&  ainsi  nous  transportames  tout  nostre  equipage  avec  nos  Canots 
par  un  chemin  que  Ton  ballisa  pour  la  facilite  de  ceux  qui  vien- 
droient  apres  nous,  apres  avoir  laisse  au  portage  de  la  Riviere 
des  Miamis,  ains  qu'au  Fort  que  Ton  avoit  construit  a  son  em- 
bouchure des  lettres  pour  servir  d'instr  etion  a  cenx  qui  devoient 
nous  venir  joindre  dans  la  barque  au  nombre  de  vingt-cinq." 

Page  120.  "La  Riviere  Seignelay  est  navigable  pour  des 
canots  a  cent  pas  de  sa  source  &  elle  s'augmente  de  telle  sorte  en 
pen  de  temps,  qu'elle.  est  Presque  aussi  large  &  plus  prosonde 
que  la  Marne  detours  quoy  que  son  courant  soit  assez  fort, 
Qu'arpes  avoir  vogue  une  journee  entiere  on  trouvoit  quelquesois 
que  nous  n'avions  pas  avance  plus  de  deux  lieues,  en  droit  ligne 
on  ne  voyoit  aussi  loin  que  la  veue  pouvoit  s'etendre  que  des 
Marais  de  joncs  &  des  aulnes,  nous  n'eussions  pu  trouuer  a  nous 
cabanner  durant  plus  de  quarante  lieues  de  chemin,  sans  quelques 
mottes  de  terres  glaces,  sur  lesqueles  nous." 

From  Shea's  translation  of  Hennepin's  "Description  de  la 
Louisiane,"  pages  135-141:  "We  embarked  on  the  3rd  of  De- 
cember with  thirty  men,  in  eight  canoes,  and  ascended  the  river 
of  the  Miamis,  taking  our  course  to  the  south-east  for  about 


From  Hennepin's  Map,  1683. 

Page  37 


THE    ST.   JOSEPH-KANKAKEE   PORTAGE 

twenty-five  leagues.  We  could  not  make  out  the  portage  which 
we  were  to  take  with  our  canoes  and  all  our  equipage  in  order  to 
go  and  embark  at  the  source  of  the  river  Seignelay  (Theakiki), 
and  as  we  had  gone  higher  up  in  a  canoe  without  discovering  the 
place  where  we  were  to  march  by  land  to  take  the  other  river 
which  runs  by  the  Illinois,  we  halted  to  wait  for  the  Sieur  de  La 
Salle,  who  had  gone  exploring  on  land;  and  as  he  did  not  return 
we  did  not  know  what  course  to  pursue.  I  begged  two  of  our 
most  alert  men  to  penetrate  into  the  woods  and  fire  off  their  guns, 
so  as  to  give  him  notice  of  the  spot  where  we  were  waiting  for 
him.  Two  others  ascended  the  river,  but  to  no  purpose,  for  the 
night  obliged  them  to  retrace  their  steps.  The  next  day  I  took 
two  of  our  men  in  a  lightened  canoe,  to  make  greater  expedition 
and  to  seek  him  by  ascending  the  river,  but  in  vain;  and  at  four 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon  we  perceived  him  at  a  distance;  his 
hands  and  face  all  black  with  the  coals  and  wood  that  he  had 
lighted  during  the  night,  which  was  cold.  He  had  two  animals 
of  the  size  of  muskrats  hanging  to  his  belt,  which  had  a  very 
beautiful  skin,  like  a  kind  of  ermine,  which  he  killed  with  blows 
of  a  stick  without  these  little  animals  taking  flight,  and  which 
often  let  themselves  hang  by  the  tail  from  branches  of  trees;  and 
as  they  were  very  fat  our  canoe  men  feasted  on  them.  He  told 
us  that  the  marshes  that  he  met  with  obliged  him  to  make  a  wide 
sweep,  and  as  moreover  he  was  hindered  by  the  snow,  which  was 
falling  rapidly,  he  was  unable  to  reach  the  bank  of  the  river  be- 
fore two  o'clock  at  night.  He  fired  two  gun-shots  to  notify  us, 
and  no  one  having  answered  him,  he  thought  the  canoes  had  gone 
ahead  of  him,  and  kept  on  his  way  along  and  up  the  river.  After 
marching  in  this  way  more  than  three  hours  he  saw  fire  on  a 
mound,  which  he  ascended  brusquely,  and  after  calling  two  or 
three  times;  but  instead  of  finding  us  asleep,  as  he  expected,  he 
saw  only  a  little  fire  among  some  brush  and  under  an  oak  tree; 
the  spot  where  a  man  had  been  lying  down  on  some  dry  herbs, 
and  who  had  apparently  gone  off  at  the  noise  which  he  had  heard. 
It  was  some  Indian  who  had  gone  there  in  ambush  to  surprise  and 
kill  some  of  his  enemies  along  the  river.  He  called  to  him  in  two 
or  three  languages,  and  at  last,  to  show  him  that  he  did  not  fear 
him,  he  cried  that  he  was  going  to  sleep  in  his  place.  He  re- 
newed the  fire,  and,  after  warming  himself  well,  he  took  steps  to 
guarantee  himself  against  surprise  by  cutting  down  around  him 
a  quantity  of  bushes,  which,  falling  across  those  that  remained 
standing,  blocked  the  way  so  that  no  one  could  approach  him 
without  making  considerable  noise  and  awaking  him.  He  then  ex- 
tinguished his  fire  and  slept,  although  it  snowed  all  night.  Father 
Gabriel  and  I  begged  the  Sieur  de  La  SaHe  not  to  leave  his  party 
as  he  had  done,  showing  him  that  the  wholo  success  of  our  voy- 

Page  38 


THE    ST.   JOSEPH-KANKAKEE   PORTAGE 


age  depended  on  his  presence.  Our  Indian  had  remained  behind 
to  hunt,  and  not  finding  us  at  the  portage  he  went  higher  up  and 
came  to  tell  us  that  we  would  have  to  descend  the  river.  All  our 
canoes  were  sent  with  him,  and  I  remained  with  Sieur  de  La 
Salle,  who  was  very  much  fatigued,  and  as  our  cabin  was  com- 
posed only  of  flag-mats,  it  took  fire  and  would  have  burnt  us  had 
I  not  promptly  thrown  off  the  mats,  which  served  as  a  door  to 
our  little  quarters,  and  which  was  all  in  flames.  We  joined  our 
party  the  next  day  at  the  portage,  where  Father  Gabriel  had 
made  several  crosses  (blazes)  on  the  trees  that  we  might  recog- 
nize it.  We  found  there  a  number  of  buffalo  horns  and  the  car- 
casses of  those  animals,  and  some  canoes  that  the  Indians  had 
made  of  buffalo  skin  to  cross  the  river  with  their  load  of  meat. 
This  place  is  situated  on  the  edge  of  a  great  plain,  at  the  ex- 
tremity of  which,  on  the  western  side,  is  a  village  of  Miamis, 
Mascoutens  and  Oiaton  (Wees)  gathered  together.  The  river 
Seignelay  (Theakiki),  which  flows  to  the  Illinois,  rises  in  a  plain 
in  the  midst  of  much  boggy  land,  over  which  it  is  not  easy  to 
walk.  This  river  is  only  a  league  and  a  half  distant  (4.57  miles) 
from  that  of  the  Miamis,  and  thus  we  transported  all  our  equip- 
age and  our  canoes  by  a  road  which  was  marked  for  the  benefit 
of  those  who  might  come  after  us,  after  leaving  at  the  portage  of 
the  Miamis  river,  as  well  as  at  the  fort  which  we  had  built  at  its 
mouth,  letters,  which  were  hung  on  the  trees  at  the  pass  to  serve 
as  a  guide  to  those  who  were  to  come  and  join  us  by  the  barque, 
to  the  number  of  twenty-five.  The  river  Seignelay  is  navigable 


VIEW    OF    LA  SALLE  S    LANDING. 

Photographed  in  1894. 


Page  39 


THE    ST.    JOSEPH-KANKAKEE    PORTAGE 

for  canoes  to  within  a  hundred  paces  of  its  source,  and  it  in- 
creases to  such  an  extent  in  a  short  time  that  it  is  almost  as  broad 
and  deeper  than  the  Marne.  It  takes  its  course  through  vast 
marshes,  where  it  winds  about  so,  though  its  current  is  pretty 
strong,  that  after  sailing  on  it  for  a  whole  day  we  sometimes 
found  that  we  had  not  advanced  more  than  two  leagues  in  a 
straight  line.  As  far  as  the  eye  could  reach  nothing  was  to  be 
seen  but  marshes  full  of  flags  and  alders.  For  more  than  forty 
leagues  of  the  way  we  could  not  have  found  a  camping  ground, 
except  for  some  hummocks  of  frozen  earth  upon  which  we  slept 
and  lit  our  fire." 

La  Salle  says,  in  his  diary  of  his  second  trip  through  this 
region:  "That  on  the  17th  of  November,  1680,  having  made  the 
portage,  which  is  two  leagues  (6.1  miles)  long,  when  the  waters 
are  low." 

Tonty,  in  his  account  of  the  trip,  written  November  14,  1684, 
says:  "After  having  ascended  the  river  of  the  Miamis  about 
twenty-seven  leagues,  and  having  nobody  to  guide  us  to  find  the 
portage  which  goes  to  the  River  Ilinois,  M.  de  La  Salle  walked 
by  land,  with  the  intention  of  finding  one.  Night  came  upon  us 
and  we  took  to  shelter,  but  M.  de  La  Salle  being  entangled  be- 
tween a  swamp  and  the  firm  ground  was  obliged  to  make  the  tour. 
Having  seen  a  fire  he  went  to  it,  hoping  to  find  some  savages  and 
get  shelter  with  them.  He  cried  out  like  a  savage,  but  finding 
no  one  answered  him,  he  entered  the  brushwood  where  the  fire 
was.  He  found  nobody,  and  it  was  surely  the  hut  of  some  war- 
rior who  had  been  afraid  of  him.  He  lay  down  with  two  fire- 
brands before  him,  although  it  was  very  cold,  and  even  snowed. 
He  joined  me  the  next  day.  There  arrived  also  a  savage  hunter 
of  La  Salle's,  who  told  us  that  the  people  whom  I  had  left  were 
waiting  for  us  at  the  portage,  which  was  two  leagues  below  us. 
The  portage  found  and  people  reassembled,  that  caused  us  great 
joy." 


Tonty,  in  his  memoir  on  the  "Discovery  of  the  Mississippi," 
says:  "M.  de  La  Salle  sent  his  boat  back  to  Niagara  to  fetch  the 
things  he  wanted  and  embarked  in  a  canoe;  continued  his  voy- 
age to  the  Miamis  river  and  there  commenced  to  build  a  house. 
In  the  meantime  I  came  up  with  the  deserters  and  brought  them 
back  to  within  thirty  leagues  of  the  Miamis  river,  where  I  was 
obliged  to  leave  my  men  in  order  to  hunt,  our  provisions  failing 

Page  M 


THE    ST.    JOSEPH-KANKAKEE   PORTAGE 


us.  I  then  went  on  to  join  M.  de  La  Salle.  When  I  arrived  he 
told  me  he  wished  that  all  the  men  had  come  with  me,  in  order 
that  he  might  proceed  to  the  Illinois.  I  therefore  retraced  my 
way  to  find  them;  but  the  violence  of  the  wind  forced  me  to  land 


From  Franquelin's  Map,  1688. 

and  our  canoe  was  upset  by  the  violence  of  the  waves.  It  was, 
however,  saved;  but  everything  that  was  in  it  was  lost,  and  for 
want  of  provisions  we  lived  for  three  days  on  acorns.  I  sent  word 
of  what  had  happened  to  M.  de  La  Salle,  and  he  directed  me  to 
join  him.  I  went  back  in  my  little  canoe  ,and  as  soon  as  I  arrived 
we  ascended  twenty-five  leagues  as  far  as  the  portage,  where  the 
men  whom  I  had  left  behind  joined  us.  We  made  the  portage, 
which  extends  about  two  leagues,  and  came  to  the  source  of  the 
Illinois  river.  We  embarked  there  descending  the  river  for  one 
hundred  leagues  and  arrived  at  the  village  of  the  savages." 

Le  Clercq,  in  his  "Establishment  of  the  Faith  in  New  France," 
says;   "Meanwhile,  on   the  18th  of  September,  the   Sieur   de  La 


VIEW    ON    ST.    JOSEPH    RIVER,    OPPOSITE    LA  SALLE  S    LANDING. 


Page 


THE    ST.   JOSEPH-KANKAKEE   PORTAGE 

Salle,  with  our  Fathers  and  seventeen  men,  continued  their  route 
in  canoes,  by  Lake  Dauphin,  to  the  mouth  of  the  river  of  the  Mi- 
amis,  where  they  arrived  on  the  1st  of  November.  This  place  had 
been  appointed  a  rendezvous  for  twenty  Frenchmen,  who  came  by 
the  opposite  shore,  and  also  for  the  Sieur  de  Tonty,  who  had  been 
sent  by  the  Sieur  de  La  Salle  to  Missilimakinak  on  another  expedi- 
tion. The  Sieur  de  La  Salle  built  a  fort1  there,  to  put  his  men  and 
property  in  safety  against  the  assaults  of  the  Indians.  Our  reli- 
gious Fathers  soon  had  a  bark  cabin  erected  to  serve  as  a  chapel, 
where  they  exercised  their  ministry  for  French  and  Indians  until 
the  3rd  of  December  following,  when,  leaving  four  men  in  the 
fort,  they  went  in  search  of  the  portage  which  would  bring  them 
to  the  Seignelay  river,  which  descends  to  the  River  Mississippi. 
They  embarked  on  this  river  to  the  number  of  thirty  or  forty  per- 
sons, by  which,  after  a  hundred  or  a  hundred  and  twenty  leagues 
sail,  they  arrived  toward  the  close  of  December  at  the  greatest 
village  of  the  Illinois,  composed  of  about  four  or  five  hundred 
cabins,  each  of  five  or  six  families." 

In  the  memoir  on  "The  Indians  Between  Lake  Erie  and  the 
Mississippi,"  Paris  Documents,  1718,  published  in  the  Colonial 
History  of  the  State  of  New  York,  Vol.  IX.,  page  289,  we  find 
the  following  statement:  "The  River  St.  Joseph  is  south  of  Lake 
Michigan,  formerly  the  Lake  of  Illinois.  Many  take  this  river  to 
the  Rocks,  because  it  is  convenient,  and  they  thereby  avoid  the 
portages  des  Chaines  and  des  Perches." 

We  now  come  to  the  letters  of  Charlevoix,2  written  to  the 
Madame  la  Duchesse  de  Lesdiquieres.  We  quote  first,  from  the 
letter  of  August  16,  1721,  dated  River  St.  Joseph:  "It  is  eight 
days  since  I  arrived  at  this  post,  where  we  have  a  mission,  and 
where  there  is  a  commandant  with  a  small  garrison.  The  com- 

1.  In  his  Royal  Charter,  La  Salle  was  given  permission  to  es- 

tablish Forts.  It  was  his  intention  to  make  this  place  at 
the  mouth  of  the  Miamis  river  the  base  of  operation  and 
his  vessel's  principal  port  on  Lake  Michigan.  On  the  map 
•which  accompanies  Hennepin's  work,  "Description  de  la 
Louisiane"  La  Salle's  Fort  is  called  Fort  Des  Miamis. 
Charlevoix,  who  visited  the  St.  Joseph  river  in  1721,  makes 
no  mention  of  any  Fort  at  the  mouth  of  the  river  either  in 
his  "Letters  to  the  Madame  la  Duchesse  de  Lesdiquieres"  or 
in  his  "History  of  New  France."  There  is  no  record  of 
any  fort  at  the  mouth  of  the  river  except  that  built  by  La 
Salle.  After  his  final  departure  from  this  region  the  site 
was  never  used  as  a  military  or  trading  post.  It  was  known 
as  the  harbor  of  the  St.  Joseph  river,  and  by  sailors  as  late 
as  1834,  as  Saranac  and  Newburryport.  In  March  1834,  the 
little  settlement  was  incorporated  as  the  village  of  St.  Jo- 
seph, the  name  of  the  present  beautiful  city. 

2.  Pierre  Francois  Xavier  Charlevoix. 

Page  42 


THE    ST.    JOSEPH-KANKAKEE   PORTAGE 

mandant's  house,  which  is  a  very  sorry  one,  is  called  the  Fort,1 
from  its  being  surrounded  with  an  indifferent  palisado,  which  is 
pretty  near  the  case  with  all  the  rest.  We  have  here  two  villages 
of  Indians,  one  of  the  Miamis  and  the  other  of  the  Pottawato- 
mies;  both  of  them  mostly  Christian,  but  they  have  been  for  a 
long  time  without  any  pastor.  The  missionary  who  has  been  lately 
sent  to  them  will  have  no  small  difficulty  in  bringing  them  back 
to  the  exercise  of  their  religion.  The  River  St.  Joseph  comes  from 
the  south  and  discharges  itself  into  Lake  Michigan  (the  eastern 
shore  of  which  is  a  hundred  leagues  in  length),  and  which  you  are 
obliged  to  sail  along  before  you  come  to  the  entry  of  the  river. 
You  afterwards  sail  up  twenty  leagues  in  it  before  you  reach  the 
fort,  which  navigation  requires  great  precaution." 

I  will  state  that  this  distance,  by  actual  survey  of  the  west 
bank  of  the  river,  is  a  trifle  over  fifty-nine  miles.  It  is  estimated 
in  Perkins'  "Annals  of  the  West,"  at  sixty  miles. 

Charlevoix,  in  his  letter  to  the  Duchesse,  dated  on  the  Source 
of  the  Theakiki,  the  17th  of  September,  1721,  says  "MADAME:— 
I  did  not  expect  to  take  my  pen  so  soon  again  to  write  to  you,  but 
my  guides  have  just  broken  their  boat,  and  here  I  am  again  de- 


From  Charlevoix's  Map.  Published  1744. 


1.  Fort  St.  Joseph  was  located  one  mile  south  of  the  present  city 
of  Niles,  Michigan,  on  the  east  bank  of  the  St.  Joseph  river. 
Near  this  site  was  a  village  of  the  Miami  Indians.  Father 
Aveneau  of  the  Society  of  Jesus  established  a  mission  there 
in  1690.  February  15th,  1694,  Governor  Denonville  granted 
this  society  a  concession  of  20  arpents  along  the  St.  Joseph 
river  by  20  arpents  in  depth,  at  such  a  spot  as  they  should 
deem  most  suitable  to  erect  a  chapel  and  house.  Sieur  de 
Courtemanche  with  some  Canadian  soldiers  were  at  the 
mission  in  1695,  and  protected  the  missionaries  from  the 
Iroquois.  In  1697,  a  Military  Post  was  established  there. 
From  that  time  it  was  known  in  history  as  Fort  St.  Joseph, 
until  it  was  destroyed  by  the  Spanish  Expedition  from  St. 
Louis  in  1781. 

Page  43 


THE    ST.    JOSEPH-KANKAKEE   PORTAGE 

layed  for  a  whole  day  in  a  place  where  I  find  nothing  to  excite 
the  curiosity  of  a  traveler,  so  I  have  nothing  better  to  do  than  to 
yield  myself  to  the  pleasure  of  talking  with  you.  I  believe  I 
made  you  understand  in  my  last  that  I  had  two  routes  to  choose 
between  for  reaching  the  Illinois.  The  first  was  to  return  to  Lake 
Michigan,  to  follow  its  southern  course,  and  to  enter  the  little 
river  of  Chicago.  After  having  ascended  it  five  or  six  leagues 
one  passes  into  that  of  the  Illinois  by  means  of  two  portages,  the 
longer  of  which  is  only  five-quarter  leagues;  but  as  this  river  is, 
however,  only  a  brook  at  this  place,  I  was  warned  that  at  this  sea- 
son I  should  not  find  in  it  enough  water  for  my  boat.  Therefore 
I  took  the  other  route,  which,  indeed,  has  its  inconveniences  and 
is  not  nearly  as  agreeable,  but  it  is  surer.  I  left  yesterday  the 
fort  of  St.  Joseph  river,  and  I  ascended  this  river  about  six  leagues 
I  disembarked  on  the  right,  walked  five-quarter  leagues,  first  fol- 
lowing the  edge  of  the  water,  then  across  the  fields  into  a  great 
prairie,  all  sprinkled  with  little  tufts  of  woodland,  which  have  a 
very  beautiful  effect.  It  is  called  'la  Prairie  de  Tete  de  Bceuf,' 
because  there  was  found  there,  so  they  say,  an  ox's  head,  which 
was  monstrous  in  size.  Why  may  there  not  have  been  giants 
among  these  animals  also?  I  encamped  in  a  beautiful  place  called 
'le  Fort  des  Renards,'  because  the  wolves,  that  is  the  Outagamis, 
had  there  not  long  ago  a  village  fortified  in  their  way.  This 
morning  I  went  a  league  farther  into  the  prairie;  my  feet  almost 
constantly  in  water.  There  I  found  a  sort  of  pond  which  commu- 
nicates with  several  others  of  different  sizes,  the  largest  of  which 
is  only  one  hundred  paces  in  circuit.  These  are  the  sources  of  a 
river  called  Theakiki,  which,  by  corruption,  our  Canadians  name 
Kiakiki.  Theak  means  a  wolf.  I  no  longer  recall  in  what  lan- 
guage, but  this  river  bears  that  name  because  the  Mahangans,  who 
are  also  called  the  Wolves,  formerly  took  refuge  there.  We  put 
our  boat,  which  two  men  had  carried  up  to  this  point,  into  the 
second  of  these  sotfrces  and  we  embarked,  but  we  had  scarcely 
enough  water  to  keep  afloat.  Ten  men  would  make  in  two  days 
a  straight  and  navigable  canal,  which  would  save  much  trouble 
and  ten  or  twelve  leagues  of  road,  for  the  river,  at  its  issue  from 
the  sources,  js  so  narrow,  and  it  is  necessary  to  continually  turn 
so  sharply,  that  at  each  instant  one  is  in  danger  of  breaking  his 
boat,  as  has  just  happened  to  us." 


Daniel  Coxe,  in  his  "Description  of  the  English  Province  of 
Carolina,"  published  in  1722,  gives  the  distance  from  the  St.  Jo- 
seph river  to  the  Theakiki  as  six  miles. 

Page  4b 


THE    ST.    JOSEPH-KANKAKEE   PORTAGE 

These  are  the  data  from  which  the  historians  obtained  their 
knowledge  of  the  portage;  and  it  seems  that  the  citations  given 
cover  everything  they  mention,  and  without  doubt  are  the  origi- 
nal sources  of  their  information. 

From  the  account  of  Charlevoix,  we  know  that  the  distance 
from  the  mouth  of  the  river  to  Fort  St.  Joseph  was  estimated  by 
him  at  twenty  leagues,  or  sixty-one  English  miles.  The  actual 
distance  by  survey  is  fifty-nine  miles.  We  know  from  Hennepin's 
and  Tonty's  account,  and  indirectly  from  Charlevoix's  account, 
that  the  portage  was  obscured  and  hard  to  find,  which  would  not 
have  been  the  case  if  it  had  been  well  defined  and  marked  by 
the  mouth  of  a  creek  or  brook.1  From  the  accounts  of  Hen- 
nepin  and  Tonty,  we  know  that  La  Salle's  party  passed  the  por- 
tage. Tonty  says  that  they  ascended  twenty-seven  leagues,  and 
that  they  descended  two  leagues  to  the  portage,  making  the  dis- 
tance from  the  mouth  of  the  river  twenty-five  leagues,  or  five 
leagues  from  the  site  of  Fort  St.  Joseph,  as  located  by  Charle- 
voix. Charlevoix  states  in  his  letter  of  September  17,  1721:  "I  as- 
cended the  river  about  six  leagues;"  and  he  evidently  passed  the 
portage  landing  as  had  La  Salle  and  his  followers.  He  further 
states  that  the  walked  five-quarter  leagues,  three  and  three-quar- 
ter miles,  first  following  the  edge  of  the  water.  We  can  estimate 
the  distance  he  traveled  along  the  edge  of  the  water  quite  closely, 
as  he  states  that  the  five-quarter  leagues  brought  him  to  the 
fortified  Indian  village.  This  village  was  two  and  one-half  miles 
from  the  portage  landing  and  on  the  western  verge  of  the  prairie; 
hence  Charlevoix  must  have  descended  the  river  from  a  point 
about  opposite  St.  Mary's  Academy;  one  and  one-quarter  miles  to 
the  portage  landing.  This  is  about  the  only  place  he  could  have 
walked  along  the  river's  edge;  for  below  the  landing,  the  western 
bank  of  the  river  is  high  and  precipitous,  and  above  it  is,  in  the 
main,  low  and  terraced. 

Both  Hennepin  and  Charlevoix  state  that  the  source  of  the 
Kankakee  was  in  a  prairie  or  plain,  and  that  the  land  was  wet 
and  boggy,  over  which  it  was  not  easy  to  walk.  Charlevoix  says 
of  the  last  league,  three  miles,  "my  feet  were  almost  constantly  in 
the  water."  Parkman  says  that  the  soil  quaked  beneath  their 

1.  It  has  been  suggested  that  the  portage  landing  might  have 
been  at  Witters  Branch,  23  chains  and  50  links,  (1551  feet) 
down  the  river  from  the  landing  to  the  Kankakee  as  located 
by  the  government  surveyor,  (see  pages  15  and  16  of  this 
pamphlet)  and  thus  necessitating  a  longer  portaging.  No 
Indian  or  coureur  de  bois,  and  hardly  any  one  else,  for  that 
matter,  would  make  a  landing  for  a  portage  of  four  to  six 
miles,  that  would  compel  him  to  carry  hiY>  canoe,  etc.,  a 
foot  farther  then  necessary.  It  follows  that  La  Salle  did 
not  ask  his  mutinuous  men  to  do  so. 

Page  45 


THE    ST.   JOSEPH-KANKAKEE   PORTAGE 


Outline   Drawing   Showing  Location   of    Hennepin's   Ponds — The    Kankakee   End 

of  the  Portage. 

tread  and  all  around  were  pools  of  glistening  water.  Hennepin 
states  that  this  point  is  only  a  league  and  a  half,  4.57  miles,  dis- 
tant from  the  Miamis  river.  This  corresponds  to  the  distance 
measured  along  the  portage  trail,  as  located  by  the  Govern- 
ment Survey,  and  verified  by  such  well  known  surveyors  as  Mr. 
William  Rosencrans,  Mr.  Fred  Keller,  and  the  late  Milton  B. 
Stokes.  At  a  point  a  little  to  the  northeast  of  the  middle  of  Section 
17,  Township  37  North,  Range  2  East,  in  boggy  and  wet  ground, 
prominently  and  clearly  indicated,  are  the  basins  of  three  small 
pools  or  ponds,  the  largest  of  which  is  not  over  one  hundred  paces 
in  circumference.  They  are  the  sources  of  the  crooked  and  wind- 
ing northwest  branch  of  the  Kankakee  river.  These  ponds  are, 
without  any  doubt,  the  ones  referred  to  by  Hennepin  and  Charle- 
voix,  as  the  place  where  they  launched  their  canoes. 

La  Salle  on  his  second  trip  states  that  the  portage  was  two 
leagues  (six  miles)  when  the  water  was  low,  which  would  indi- 

Page  46 


THE    ST.   JOSEPH-KANKAKEE   PORTAGE 

cate  that  La  Salle  on  this  trip  embarked  on  the  Kankakee  between 
Sections  19  and  20,  Township  37  North,  Range  2  East. 

It  has  been  suggested  that  Charlevoix  might  have  continued 
his  journey  directly  west  one  league,  three  miles,  from  the  forti- 
fied Indian  village.  If  this  had  been  the  case,  he  would  have  gone 
through  forest  and  over  dry  rolling  land,  bringing  him  to  the 
west  of  Beaver  Lake;1  the  lake  farthest  north  of  the  three,  known 
as  Chain  Lakes.  The  outlet  of  these  lakes  is  the  Grapevine 
Creek,  which  flows  toward  the  south  for  a  distance  of  ten  miles 
through  the  Grapevine  woods  before  it  empties  into  the  Kankakee. 
However,  Charlevoix  states  distinctly  that  after  leaving  the 
fortified  Indian  village,  he  walked  one  league  farther  into  the 
prairie,  with  his  feet  almost  constantly  in  the  water.  This  state- 
ment is  the  best  evidence  that  Charleviox  did  not  go  by  way  of 
Chain  Lakes  and  the  Grapevine  Creek;  but  did  go  through  the 
boggy  and  marshy  ground  in  the  vicinity  of  the  shallow  Cran- 
berry, Grill  and  Mud  Lakes,  in  Section  5  and  8,  to  the  ponds,  and 
to  the  landing  on  the  Kankakee,  as  made  by  Hennepin,  Tonty 
and  La  Salle,  in  their  portage  of  December,  1679. 

Charlevoix  evidently  did  not  follow  the  portage  from  river  to 
river,  as  we  have  every  reason  to  think  that  La  Salle's  party  with 
their  canoes  and  heavy  burdens  did.  He  came  to  this  country 
mainly  to  visit  and  report  on  the  condition  of  the  Indian  mis- 
sions; a  good  reason  for  his  visit  to  the  fortified  Indian  village  on 
the  western  verge  of  the  prairie.  Finding  the  village  abandoned, 
he  the  next  day  continued  his  journey  southward,  and  together 
with  his  two  companions,  launched  their  canoe  on  the  Kankakee. 
The  detour  making  a  distance  traveled  five  and  one-half  miles, 
which  is  longer  than  the  regular  trail  followed  between  the  two 
landing  places. 

In  conclusion  we  can  confidently  infer  that  the  trail  as  used 
by  La  Salle  and  the  early  French  explorers  and  by  them  made 
historic,  commenced  at  the  landing  on  the  St.  Joseph  river,  at  the 
place  indicated  in  Brookfield's  survey,  and  thence  leading  to  the 
southwest  to  the  ponds  which  were  the  source  of  the  northwest 
branch  of  the  Kankakee. 

1.  This  little  lake  to  the  south  of  Fairyiew  Chapel  in  Warren 
Township,  St.  Joseph  County,  was  in  1829  over  three  thou- 
sand feet  in  circumference.  In  1839  Mr.  Charles  Woolver- 
ton,  enlarged  its  outlet;  later  the  partially  reclaimed  land 
was  ditched,  making  it  most  desirable  pasture  land.  There 
still  remain,  however,  two  or  three  wet  soots,  formerly  the 
deep  holes  in  this  little  lake,  and  though  they  are  connected 
by  a  ditch  with  the  former  outlet,  these  places  remain 
moist  and  marshy.  I  call  attention  to  the  above  facts,  be- 
cause these  wet  spots  have  been  mentioned  as  the  pools  or 
ponds  referred  to  by  Hennepin  and  Charlevoix. 

Page  47 


From  H.  S.  Tanner's  Map  of  Ohio  and  Indiana,  Published  at  Philadelphia,  1819. 


From  John  Farmer's  Map  of  Indiana,  Published  at  Detroit,  1835. 


977.2B17S1958  C001 

THE  ST.  JOSEPH-KANKAKEE  PORTAGE  3D  ED   S 


3011 


2  025377448 


